Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital on Saturday, to review its preparation in the face of the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic that has hit Delhi. He took stock of the situation and the facilities provided to the patients in the hospital.

Currently, 1500 beds out of 2000 declared as COVID beds, more might be declared as per the future requirements, Kejriwal said.

Briefing the media after the review visit, Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “The last few days have seen a rise in the number of corona cases in the entire country, including Delhi. We need to simultaneously spearhead an aggressive vaccination campaign and also put in place measures that can effectively contain the spread of the virus along with making the hospital management equally effective. This is the fourth wave in Delhi. The last wave was in November after which the cases had become so few in Delhi that health system and agencies began to lax. It is imperative that they gain their momentum again and begin to function in the same efficient manner that they did, which helped contain the spread of the virus.”

“Today, I am here to review the preparation of the LNJP hospital. The Delhi government and hospitals of Delhi are working in earnest to revert to their November level of preparation that helped contain the third wave of the virus. LNJP has 2000 beds. During the last wave, all 2000 were declared as COVID beds. Right now, we have declared 1500 as COVID beds, 500 are still non-COVID. Slowly OPD will also be ended at the hospital and if the situation demands, all 2000 will be made available for COVID patients. Whatever is required by the hospitals from our end, will be provided,” he added.

When asked about the vaccination campaign, possibility of a lockdown and preparation of the government in the face of rising cases, Chief Minister Kejriwal said, “I have written a letter to the Prime Minister, in which I have said that if adequate doses of the vaccination are made available to us, if we are given permission to increase the number of vaccination centres and if the age limit is removed then within 2-3 months we can vaccinate the entire state. I cannot talk about the rest of the country, but according to Delhi governments’ level of preparation, if these three pre-conditions are met, we can assure you that all residents of Delhi will be vaccinated within 2-3 months. Once everyone is vaccinated, it will greatly aid us in containing and ending the severity of the virus.”

“At the moment, we have vaccination for 7-10 days and the conditions for administering them, particularly the age limit, are very rigid. According to me, there is an impending need to remove these obstacles that are coming in the way of the vaccination campaign. We are currently in a comfortable position with reference to beds and ventilators. We will ensure that the people of Delhi stay safe, to the best of our abilities. Lockdown is not an option, however we will be putting some restrictions in place to contain the spread of the virus,” he added.

During his review visit to the LNJP Hospital, Kejriwal spoke to a patient admitted in the COVID ward through the video call facility and enquired about his condition. With the help of the video call facility in LNJP, patients can directly talk to their family members.