COVID cases in Delhi rising, but mild; no need to panic: Arvind Kejriwal

Amid an alarming surge in COVID cases in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday assured residents that there is no need to panic as most of the reported cases are mild and that the government is prepared with enough hospital beds to handle cases if the situation worsens.

At 351 cases, the national capital is just next to Maharashtra is logging the highest Omicron infections in the country.

“COVID-19 cases are increasing rapidly in Delhi, but there is no need to panic. Currently, the active cases in the city are 6,360. Today, 3,100 new cases are expected. Only 246 hospital beds were occupied yesterday and all the cases are mild and asymptomatic,” Kejriwal said in a virtual press conference.

“As of now, only 82 oxygen beds in hospitals are occupied. Delhi government is prepared with 37,000 beds. I just want to tell you that all new cases are with mild symptoms, asymptomatic, so there is no need to panic,” he added.

Also read: India’s single-day COVID cases up by 21%, Omicron tally at 1,525

He presented data to show that despite an increase in the number of cases, bed occupancy in hospitals is even lesser than one per cent and is very low as compared to last year’s deadly second wave of coronavirus in April.

“Active COVID-19 cases rose from about 2,000 on December 29, 2021 to 6,000 on January 1, but the number of patients in hospitals dipped during this period. On December 29, 2021 as many as 262 beds were occupied while on January 1 it was 247 only,” Kejriwal said.

He said that on March 27 last year, Delhi had 6,600 active cases and 1,150 oxygen beds were occupied. As many as 145 patients were on ventilator compared to five now.

(With inputs from agencies)