NEW DELHI: Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain on Saturday advised people to celebrate Holi at home with family.
He stressed that action will be taken against those who celebrate Holi in public.
Delhi government is constituting various teams in order to implement restrictions on public gatherings during Holi, Jain said.
“I would like to appeal to one and all that we must celebrate the festival within our homes. These festivals would come next year as well wherein one could celebrate it publicly," he said.
He added, "When 50 people meet and come in contact, out of these even if two people are positive, the rest would test positive too. Such events must be avoided. DMs and police are creating district-wise teams. Legal action would be taken against violators," the minister said.
The minister cleared doubts about rumours about the possibility of lockdown in the city due to recent spurt in the number of Covid cases.
No possibility of lockdownAs of now there is no possibility of lockdown because lockdown is no solution for
Covid-19, we have seen the lockdown but that did not defeat Covid completely, the minister said.
He said in Delhi for each Covid patient, on an average 30 to 40 contacts are traced and tested.
In a press conference, the health minister elaborated on the measures the government is taking to tackle the recent surge in Covid cases.
He said that the government is gearing up to carry out vaccination of all those above 45 years of age from the first day of the month.
The government said it has sufficient number of vaccine available.
1558 single-day Covid cases were reported on Saturday and the positivity rate was 1.7 per cent.
The positivity from the past 2-3 days has been 1.75 per cent and the active number of cases has also increased.
“We have increased the rate of testing with around 85,000-90,000 daily Covid tests are being conducted. This is five times more than the country’s average testing," he said.
Isolation and contact tracing are also being done i.e. 30-40 people being traced for each Covid-positive patient in order to contain it as fast as possible, Jain said.
Despite the surge, hospital bed occupancy is around 20 per cent and around 80 per cent beds are unoccupied and the occupancy rate of intensive care units (ICUs) is also the same.
“However, in the case of requirement, we would definitely increase the number of beds. For instance, there are 500 beds in Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, but the occupancy is only around 20-25," he said.
"Hence, the number of beds available is sufficient. The rate of occupancy for ICU beds too is 20 per cent, the point being in LNJP we have 300 ICU beds. Even in Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, out of a total of 500, 300 are ICU beds. So, a large number of ICU beds being provided and we would increase them if required," Jain said.
The minister stressed on the importance of masks in the fight against coronavirus.
“At times a fatigue factor too comes into play. Earlier in Delhi, the compliance was really good so the number of cases had reduced drastically but from the past 10-15 days it has been felt that the compliance has decreased for which we are trying to adopt strict measures and appealing to the citizens to comply to the rules, the most important of them being wearing of masks in public places due to which its spread can be contained. I would like to appeal to the citizens, that even though more than 10 lakh people have been vaccinated in Delhi, they too should wear masks in public," Jain said.
The government has started random testing at airport, railway stations and bus terminals.
"We have started random testing at railway stations and airports. Delhi is the nation’s capital from where people sure do travel and there have been cases, for instance, where a person travelled from Delhi to Punjab or Maharashtra and while coming back was tested positive. So, such cases have been coming to the forefront," Jain said.