COVID-19 situation improved in Delhi after Centre's intervention: Delhi BJP chief

The Arvind Kejriwal government "turned its back" on Delhi'ites amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Union Home minister Amit Shah had to take over command of Delhi to provide proper healthcare facilities to the people, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said on Sunday.

The COVID-19 situation has improved in Delhi after the intervention of the Modi government, he said as he lamented Chief Minister Kejriwal's admission that death toll increased in Delhi due to "lack" of beds for coronavirus-infected people in June.

Kejriwal, in a virtual briefing on Saturday, acknowledged that death figures had increased due to shortage of beds for COVID-19 patients in the first week of June. However, in the past one month his government significantly increased the number of beds and there was no lack of it presently, he had said.

Hitting out at the chief minister, the Delhi BJP chief said, "Right from the beginning, Kejriwal used to say that he had arranged 30,000 beds for COVID-19 patients, but when the patients needed beds, those beds became invisible,"

"The Kejriwal government had turned its back on the people and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had to take over command of Delhi and proper health facilities were provided to the people," Gupta said. With the intervention of the Modi government, the coronavirus situation has improved in Delhi, he claimed.

Steps like reducing the rate of testing to price capping of COVID-19 treatment, mapping of containment zones, new test centres, were taken following the Centre's intervention, he said.

Around 20,000 people are being tested every day and six lakh people are to be tested through rapid antigen kits for free. A total of 9,937 beds were available in Delhi on 14 June, and now with the efforts of the Modi government, almost 30,000 beds have been arranged in Delhi, he claimed.

Also, about 8,000 beds have been prepared for COVID-19 patients in railway coaches and the DRDO is building a specialized hospital with 250 ICU beds with ventilators. A 10,000-bed facility has almost been completed at in Chhatarpur, he added.

(Photo Credit: PTI)