Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Monday that people should not get panicky because of the rising cases of Covid-19 for the past few days in the national capital. He assured the Delhiites that his government was “fully ready to effectively deal with the emerging crisis”. There was adequate arrangement for hospital beds, medicines, medical-grade oxygen and other things needed to take care of patients.
Addressing an online press conference, he said, “Today, a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority was held under the chairmanship of the Lt-Governor when it was decided that all new positive cases of Covid-19 will now be sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether the rise in the number of daily fresh cases of the coronavirus was because of the spread of the new variant, Omicron. Earlier, samples taken from only those arriving in Delhi by air and found to be infected by Covid-19 were sent for genome sequencing.”
He pointed out that the Delhi government would strengthen its home isolation system to ensure the treatment of new patients of the coronavirus in the comfort of their homes. A meeting of the officials concerned has also been scheduled for 23 December in this connection.
He said, “We will strengthen our home isolation system as most new Covid-19 cases may not require hospitalisation.”
The Chief Minister informed that consultation with the experts present at the DDMA meeting brought out the fact that there was faster spread of the new variant, but Omicron-infected persons mostly did not require to be hospitalised. It has been noticed that most such
patients do not lose their lives also.
Kejriwal said, “My appeal to the Centre is to allow the administration of a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine under the prevailing situation. As many as 99 per cent of the Delhiites have got their first vaccine dose and over 70 per cent are now vaccinated with both vaccine doses. Now there is need for a booster dose and Delhi is fully prepared for this.”
He appealed to people to use the face mask as a must to save themselves from getting infected by the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, figures available from the Delhi government showed that two new cases of Omicron have been identified in the city, taking the cumulative count of such patients to 24. Twelve of these patients remain discharged from the hospitals where they were admitted.