PremiumDelhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting today to discuss the roadmap and an action plan to tackle a possible third wave of coronavirus in the national capital.
During Friday's meeting, the L-G and the CM also discussed bed and oxygen management, availability of drugs and coronavirus vaccination, the chief minister's office said.
A state-level task force, more healthcare staff and a special task force for treatment or children are part of the Delhi government's action plan to deal with the third wave, the CMO tweeted.
Meanwhile, the national capital recorded 10 more deaths due to coronavirus and 158 new cases of the disease on Thursday while the positivity rate dipped to 0.20%, as per the data shared by the health department.
These new fatalities have pushed the death toll in the city to 24,886. The national capital on April 3 had also recorded 10 deaths due to COVID-19.
On Wednesday, Delhi had recorded 212 cases and 25 deaths while the positivity rate stood at 0.27%. The previous day it had registered 228 cases with a 0.32% positivity rate and 12 deaths.
On Thursday, 158 cases and 10 deaths were reported, indicating a significant fall in the count of daily fatalities due to coronavirus infection.
On June 14, the city had registered 131 cases and 16 deaths. On March 8, it had witnessed 239 cases while on February 22 there were 128 cases of COVID-19, according to official figures.
The infection rate, which had reached 36% in the last week of April, has come down to below 0.50% now.
Despite fall in daily cases in the last several days, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday cautioned that the chances of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic were quite real, while he asserted that his government was preparing on a "war-footing" to combat it.
Delhi had been reeling under a brutal second wave of the pandemic that is sweeping the country, claiming a massive number of lives daily, with the recent oxygen supply shortage issue at various hospitals, adding to the woes.
Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day death count had been spiralling up with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20, rising to 306 fatalities on April 22. On May 3, the city registered a record 448 deaths, according to official data.
However, the number of cases have shown a downward trend and the positivity rate too has been shrinking in the last several days. The number of deaths per day has also been showing a decline in the last couple of days.
On May 15, Kejriwal had said, "The virus is receding in Delhi slowly and steadily and I hope it diminishes completely and does not rise again. However, we are not going to become negligent in any way."
The Delhi government had on Sunday announced the reopening of restaurants with 50% capacity and one weekly market per municipal zone from June 14.
With close gathering of shoppers in markets and restaurants resuming business amid phased unlock in the national capital, doctors on Tuesday had cautioned that Delhi could face a "worse than second wave situation" of COVID-19 if people do not adhere to safety norms or lower their guards.
A total of 77,542 tests, including 55,564 RT-PCR and 21,978 rapid antigen ones, were conducted a day ago, according to the health bulletin on Thursday.
The number of cumulative cases on Thursday stood at 14,31,868. Over 14 lakh patients have recovered from the virus.
The number of active cases decreased to 2,554 on Thursday from 2,749 a day before, according to the bulletin.
The number of people under home isolation dipped to 733 from 781 on Wednesday while the number of containment zones dropped to 5,799 from 6,169 a day before, the bulletin said.
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