Rising Delhi Cases Due to Pollution, But Covid-19 Situation to Get Better in 7-10 Days, Says CM Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the COVID-19 situation in the national capital should come under control in seven to 10 days and that his government is taking several steps in this regard. Kejriwal also said that pollution is the “biggest” reason behind the spike in coronavirus cases in the city.

“COVID-19 cases have been increasing for the last few days. I am also concerned about it. We have been taking all appropriate measures to control it. We are considering taking more steps next week. I think the situation should come under control in 7 to 10 days and the cases should start decreasing,” he said during a press conference. “Pollution is biggest reason behind the spike in COVID-19 cases in Delhi. We had situation under control until October 20,” the CM said.

Citing a report, Kejriwal also said that the anti-stubble solution prepared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, decomposed 70 to 95 per cent of crop residue in 24 villages in Delhi. The Delhi government will submit the report along with a petition to Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas, and urge it to issue directions to all state government to implement it.

Delhi recorded 7,053 fresh COVID-19 cases in a day, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4.67 lakh on Thursday, while 104 more fatalities in a same period, the highest in over five months, pushed the death toll to 7,332, authorities said. The national capital had recorded its highest single-day spike of 8,593 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, while 85 deaths linked to the disease were recorded on that day.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday had expressed concern over rise in COVID-19 cases in the national capital and questioned the AAP government’s “doing everything under the Sun to unlock’ things”. The high court said the Delhi government cannot be allowed to play with the lives of citizens and the state is responsible for the health of citizens for which others have to chip in, including private hospitals.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said the Delhi government has to be much more alive to the current situation which the whole city can see for itself. The high court was hearing a plea by the Delhi government urging it to empower it to enforce reservation of 80 per cent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients in 33 private hospitals at least for 15 days in view of the rise in the number of cases. It later allowed the AAP government to reserve the ICU beds, saying the situation in the national capital is fairly dynamic and cases of coronavirus are spiralling.

After Wednesday’s peak in cases, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had said, “Right now, we are seeing a peak. It is difficult to make an exact prediction, but if you talk in terms of weeks, the average over the past one week has been the highest in three months. We saw an average of 13% positive cases, so definitely, in another week, the cases should start declining.”

Attributing the high number of cases to an increase in testing, Jain said, “Compared to the number of tests during the last peak, when the average was 4,400 cases, we are testing three times more. So, there is a difference when you compare it with the last peak. The number of tests has also increased. Yesterday, we conducted 60,000 to 64,000 tests. So, the number of tests has also peaked.”

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