NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that the current wave of Covid-19 pandemic and its new variant, omicron, is “very mild,” yet people need to be cautious.
During a digital press conference, Kejriwal said that so far a total of 6,300 cases have been reported in the city, but only 82 beds with oxygen facilities are occupied, as most patients are recovering at home.
“Omicron is a very mild variant of covid. Data shows how oxygen beds, ventilators are lying vacant even with a high spread in cases. The situation is not worth panicking over. We need to maintain caution. Please wear masks, follow social distancing and regularly wash hands with soap,” he said.
On Sunday, as per the Delhi government’s health bulletin, 3,194 fresh covid cases were reported — the highest single-day spike since May 22 last year.
Kejriwal said, “99.78% covid beds are vacant in Delhi hospitals, but we are still making preparations for 37,000 beds to stay ahead of the virus. The situation is significantly better than the second wave. Back then, 1,700 oxygen beds, 231 ventilators were occupied, while at present, only 82 beds and 5 ventilators have been needed so far.”
Kejriwal said that covid numbers are jumping up day by day, however, there is no need to panic, but there is a need to maintain caution.
He said, “On December 29, we saw 923 cases, on December 30, 1,313 cases, on December 31, 1,796 cases, and then the cases jumped by a thousand on January 1, 2022, to be recorded at 2,796. The numbers are likely to stay up.”
He said active cases translate into the total number of patients in the state at present. There are a total of 6,360 active cases in Delhi.
Three days back on December 29, there were 2,191 active cases. Roughly, there has been a rise of approximately 4,000 active cases over three days. But, on December 29, 262 hospital beds were occupied by Covid patients and now it has dropped down to 247 cases on January 1.
Less than 1% oxygen bed occupancy despite increase in COVID-19 cases
Active cases rose from 2,000 on Dec 29 to 6,000 on Jan 1
82 oxygen beds occupied while 99.72% remain vacant
Govt prepared with 37,000 such beds
March 27 last year
6,600 active cases
1,150 Oxygen beds occupied
145 Patients on ventilator support
April 1 last year
2,700 active cases
1,700 Oxygen beds occupied
231 Patients on ventilator support