Covid-19: Delhi short on oxygen, beds, says Kejriwal

Amid escalating cases of COVID-19, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the pandemic situation in the city has become "very serious and worrisome", with oxygen stock, remdesivir and tocilizumab drugs for patients in short supply.

The number of COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly with 24,000 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, he said in an online media briefing.

This is the highest single-day surge in the national capital till date. A day before, 19,486 COVID-19 cases and 141 deaths were reported.

"The cases of COVID-19 are rising fast in Delhi. In the last 24 hours, around 24,000 fresh cases have been reported. Within a day, the number has gone up from around 19,500 to around 24,000. So, the situation is very serious and worrisome," Kejriwal said.

On Thursday and Friday, the city had recorded 16,699 and 17,282 cases, respectively.

The chief minister also said he has spoken to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and requested him for augmenting supplies of oxygen stock, and remdesivir and tocilizumab drugs for COVID patients in Delhi.

Kejriwal said that the number of beds are also running out fast and the Delhi government is trying to escalate beds on a large-scale in the coming days.

"Our biggest target is to augment beds with oxygen supply attached," he said.

In the next 3-4 days, the government will add 6,000 more beds, including 1,300 at Yamuna Sports Complex and 2,500 at Radhaswami Satsang premises, he said.

Kejriwal warned strict action against hospitals that are denying patients beds despite showing availability on Delhi government's COVID app.

He also demanded from the Centre to reserve 50 per cent of the total pool of beds in hospitals run by it in Delhi for COVID-19 patients.

The district magistrates have also been directed to keep a tab on the labs and ensure that no new samples are collected by them if they already have pending samples of COVID-19, the chief minister said.

Some labs have lifted more samples of COVID-19 suspects than their capacity leading to delay of 3-4 days in test reports, Kejriwal said.