Concern should be number of COVID-19 deaths not cases: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the matter of concern should be the number of deaths and not cases as he claimed that the coronavirus death rate in the national capital is perhaps the lowest in the world.

"The largest number of COVID-19 tests are being carried out in Delhi at present. Eleven per cent Delhi has been tested so far with nearly 21 lakh tests. The concern should be the number of deaths and not the number of COVID cases. Death rate in Delhi is perhaps the lowest in the whole world," the chief minister said in his address during the one-day session of the Delhi Assembly.

He said while 3,057 tests are conducted per day per million population in Delhi, around 3,000 coronavirus tests are conducted per million population per day in UK, 1,388 in the USA, 2,311 in Russia, and 8,58 in Peru while India has an average of 819 tests per million per day," he said.

The chief minister said the COVID-19 situation was the toughest in Delhi.

"First, we need to understand that the situation of Corona was the toughest in Delhi. We must keep this in mind whenever we compare the situation from other states. Corona in India came from outside, India did not have any Corona cases of its own. "Corona had a huge impact in countries such as Italy and London, and many other countries and the Indians living there asked the governments of those cities that they wanted to go back to Delhi," he said.

The Indian government decided to bring these people back to India by sending special flights, the chief minister said.

"Delhi is the national capital of India and so 80-90 per cent of all the flights landed in Delhi. Corona was a new disease then, and nobody knew about any protocol or guidelines to be followed, no quarantine, and no isolation," he said.

Kejriwal said the pandemic made him realise that nobody can handle it alone.

"We realised that this is a pandemic, and nobody can handle it alone. If Delhi would have tried to handle it alone, we would not have been able to do it. We took help from everyone. I want to thank the Centre for helping us whenever we needed them. They gave us PPE kits, oxygen cylinders and testing kits. No government can handle it alone.

"We have a weakness, sir. We do not know how to do politics, but this weakness has become our biggest strength right now. I always say, the credit is yours and all the responsibility is mine. Whenever Delhi faces trouble, the responsibility is mine," he added.

Kejriwal said people from all over country are coming to Delhi for COVID-19 treatment.

"A total of 5,264 people from other states have been treated so far in Delhi. It is a difficult time. Human history never witnessed such a pandemic. We have to work for the well being of the human kind," he added.

During the assembly session, AAP MLAs, including Saurabh Bhardwaj, hit out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, alleging that there was a "scam" in procurement of COVID-19 kits and equipments.

"There is a Delhi model which follows more tests, plasma therapy and home isolation and there is a model of the BJP government in UP that is about corruption and profiteering," charged AAP MLA Raghav Chadha.