New Delhi: A meeting of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) with the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Mr. Anij Baijal was held on Tuesday in the presence of Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Manish Sisodia, Hon’ble Health Minister Mr. Satyendar Jain, Hon’ble Transport Minister Mr. Kailash Gahlot and other senior officials. After the meeting, Dy CM Mr. Sisodia said, “We had a meeting of SDMA today where we discussed COVID-19 situation in Delhi. The doubling rate of COVID cases in Delhi right now is around 12-13 days.”
“We presented the data of our prediction where we observed that by June 15, there’ll be 44,000 COVID-19 cases and 6,600 beds will be required. By June 30, we’ll reach one lakh cases and 15,000 beds will be required. By July 15, there’ll be 2.25 lakh cases and 33,000 beds will be required. By July 31, 5.5 lakh cases are expected and 80,000 beds will be required,” said the Dy CM.
“The prediction is based on the trend that when the borders were sealed due to lockdown and in Delhi hospitals, only the residents of the state were coming for the treatments. Considering the ongoing situation, the Delhi Cabinet decided to reserve the Delhi government and private hospitals only for the residents of Delhi till the time this pandemic is here. Yesterday, the Hon’ble LG has overruled this Cabinet decision, therefore, presenting the data we requested him to reconsider the decision. We asked the Hon’ble LG about his predictions about how many cases might increase in the coming days and how many cases might come from outside but he had no answers. We also asked if people from outside come to Delhi then how many beds we might need and he had no answer to that as well. However, there was consensus that considering the doubling rate of 12.6 by 31 July, 5.5 lakh cases expected & 80,000 beds will be needed,” said Mr. Sisodia.
He said, “I asked the Hon’ble LG to reconsider his decision but he denied doing that. The decision of opening the hospitals for all will create a lot of obstacles for the people of Delhi. If now people from the outside start coming to Delhi and the available beds get filled up within 2, 4, or 10 days then who will take the responsibility of the situation? The way in Delhi the numbers are increasing and if the people from outside also come to our hospitals then the situation will become very challenging for us. However, we will try our best to strengthen the health infrastructure in a way where we can provide good treatment to the people of Delhi and all over India who will come to Delhi. We will ensure more beds, ventilators and all the related infrastructure and the work is going on.”
“On community spread in Delhi, central government officials said it has not happened yet and there is no need to discuss this matter,” Mr. Manish Sisodia said after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.
Statement of Hon’ble Health Minister Mr. Satyendar Jain
“We say community spread when people don’t know how they got the infection. There are many cases. In 50 percent of the cases in Delhi, the source of infection is not known. The Director of AIIMS has also observed that there is a spread in the containment zones of Delhi. On behalf of the state government, we can only say that there is a significant spread but only the Central government can say if it is community spread or not,” said Mr. Jain.
“In the private hospitals of Delhi, at any given time, nearly 50% of people come from outside, and in the government hospitals of Delhi, nearly 70% of people come from outside. During the lockdown in both private and government hospitals, the occupancy of people from outside was 10% and only the planned surgeries were happening. This could have been continued for some time but the Hon’ble LG has not agreed to this. When the Hon’ble Dy CM asked the Hon’ble LG about his thoughts and plans then he expressed that no such plan is in place. The Delhi government is working relentlessly but such a decision will bring a lot of challenges to us as well as to the people of Delhi,” said Mr. Jain.
