Kejriwal's 'Delhi model' improved Covid-19 situation: City govt

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's 'Delhi model' of tackling Covid-19 has led to significant improvement in the situation and the national capital's case doubling rate has gone up to 101.5 days as against 28.8 days for the rest of India, an official statement said on Thursday.

The case fatality rate in Delhi for the month of August has also come down substantially to 1.4 per cent, as against 1.92 for rest of the country, it said, adding that the recovery rate in Delhi is 90.2 per cent as compared to 72.5 for rest of the country.

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A large drop has also been witnessed in positivity rate between June 18 and August 16, the statement said.

The positivity rate of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen tests both have seen a "sharp decrease", claimed the statement.

"The efforts made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to deal with the Covid-19 situation in Delhi are showing successful results. Delhi's position is much better than the rest of the country, the statement said.

At present, the doubling rate of coronavirus cases in Delhi has gone up to 101.5 days as compared to the rest of the country which stands at 28.8 days, it said.

Moreover, the mortality rate in Delhi has also considerably decreased due to the multiple efforts being made by the chief minister to bring the death figures to zero, it said.

In a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held on Wednesday, the Health department of the Delhi government presented fresh data regarding the coronavirus situation in Delhi.

"The figures are not only strengthening the case for Delhi Model's success in defeating coronavirus but also bringing relief to the residents of Delhi," it said.

"The chief minister is closely monitoring the evolving situation of the Covid pandemic in Delhi," it added.

In the month of June, there was "panic" in Delhi over Covid but the situation is showing a lot of improvement now, the statement claimed.

"On July 1, the doubling rate of Corona cases in Delhi was the same as with the rest of India at 20 days. Since then, the doubling rate of Delhi has been steadily rising. It was 58 days on July 17, around 90 days on August 1, and has currently increased to 101.5 days. In comparison, for the rest of India, the doubling rate has remained between 20 and 27 days since July 1," the statement claimed .

While reiterating that the situation of coronavirus is improving in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal has maintained that the main aim of the authorities and the Delhi government is to save as many lives as possible.

"For this, many improvements have been made inside the hospitals such as ramping up the infrastructure, increasing ICU beds and wards, and supplying oxygen concentrators to patients recovering in hospitals as well as home isolation," it said.

"The recovery rate of Delhi on June 20, was same as the rest of India at 55.2 per cent. Since then, the recovery rate of Delhi has been consistently higher than the rest of India.

"Currently, the recovery rate in Delhi is 90.2 per cent as compared to 72.5 per cent recovery rate for the rest of India. Out of a total of 1,57,354 cases in Delhi, 1,41,826 cases have recovered, which shows a significant improvement in the Corona situation in the city," it said.

The "success of Delhi Model" is also seen in the sharp decrease in test positivity rate over last two months. On 18 June, the test positivity rate in Delhi was 24.59 per cent, which reduced substantially to 5.25 per cent on August 16, the statement said.

"More importantly, the positivity rate has dropped for both RT-PCR tests and Rapid Antigen Tests," it claimed.

"On June 18 , a total of 9,088 RT-PCR tests were conducted of which 2,804 were positive - a positivity rate of 30.85 per cent. However, on August 16, out of total 4,106 RT-PCR tests conducted, 434 were positive - a positivity rate of 10.57 per cent, it claimed.

It added that similarly on June 18, 3,316 Rapid tests were conducted in Delhi of which 247 emerged positive - a positivity rate of 7.42 per cent. The positivity rate improved to 3.24 per cent, on August 16, as out of total 10,882 Rapid tests 353 were positive, claimed the government statement.