COVID-19: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the city not to panic amid Covid spike
Do not panic. This was the major focus of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's address today as the national capital saw a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases. The city has also reported the second-highest cases of the highly transmissible Omicron strain after Maharashtra.
"COVID-19 cases are increasing rapidly in Delhi, but there is no need to panic. Currently, the active cases in the city are 6,360. Today, 3,100 new cases are expected. Only 246 hospital beds were occupied yesterday and all the cases are mild and asymptomatic," Mr Kejriwal said, adding data shows that the impact of the rise in cases is far lesser than what it was during the second wave.
"As of now, only 82 oxygen beds in hospitals are occupied. Delhi government is prepared with 37,000 beds. I just want to tell you that all new cases are with mild symptoms, asymptomatic, so there is no need to panic," the Chief Minister said.
He presented data to show that despite an increase in COVID-19 cases, bed occupancy in hospitals is less than 1 per cent and is very low compared to last year's deadly second wave of coronavirus in April.
Mr Kejriwal, however, cautioned people not to drop their guard as active cases rose from around 2,000 on December 29 to 6,000 on January 1. During this period, the number of hospitalisation fell, which is a good indication that it is not as severe as the second wave, the Chief Minister said.
Delhi recorded a massive surge in infections on Saturday with 2,716 fresh cases - the highest since May 21 and a 51 per cent jump from a day earlier.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said hospital occupancy is still low and further restrictions will be reviewed soon.
Delhi, Haryana and several other states have started night curfew as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. The threat of the highly transmissible Omicron strain is also high.
Twenty-three states have reported Omicron variant so far. Maharashtra, which has reported the most number of COVID-19 cases, has 460 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi with 351 infections.
Data by the Health Ministry indicates that thickly populated metros, such as the national capital New Delhi, financial centre Mumbai and Kolkata, are seeing some of the sharpest rises.