Community spread in Delhi: Centre, AAP at loggerheads

A confrontation is brewing between the BJP-ruled Centre and AAP-led Delhi government on Tuesday over declaring community spread of COVID-19 in the national capital with central officials ruling out the city entering third stage of virus transmission and state administration insisting that there is no point in indulging in technicalities.

Central officials at a meeting of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), chaired by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, said that there is no community transmission of COVID-19 in the capital while the capital is expected to have 5.5 lakh cases by July 31, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters after the deliberations.

It was said at the meeting that COVID-19 cases are expected to shoot up to 2.25 lakh cases and 33,000 beds are required. The estimate is that there will be 44,000 cases by June 15 with a need for 6,600 beds while it would rise to one lakh cases by June 30 when 15,000 beds would be needed.

Sisodia said none in the meeting disputed these figures while Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain emphasised that only Centre has the authority to declare community spread.

It should not dig deep into technicalities, as capital’s health authorities could not trace the source of infection of around 50 per cent of COVID-19 patients, Jain said as he referred to AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria's remarks on Monday that there is community spread in Delhi’s containment zones.

"We are 10 days behind Mumbai in terms of the spreading of cases and in Delhi the number is increasing in the same proportion. It is expected that in Delhi we will reach 50,000 cases in the next 10 days," Jain said.

The SDMA meeting chaired by Baijal came a day after he reversed Delhi government’s order reserving state government-run and private hospitals in the city for Delhi residents.

Sisodia, who attended the meeting in place of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is in self isolation after developing COVID-19 like symptoms, said he requested Baijal to restore Delhi government’s order to reserve the hospitals for Delhiites but he refused to.

He said the LG was asked whether he had statistics on how many beds would be needed in case people from outside flock to the capital. He claimed Baijal did not have answers while on Monday night he had accused the BJP of putting pressure on the LG to rescind the government order.

With the LG not in a mood to restore the order, he said, they would abide by his decision and would try to implement it to the best of their ability.

LG's office issued a statement saying Baijal told Sisodia in the meeting that he had reversed the order as it violated the Constitutional rights of Equality and Right to Life which include Right to Health. A similar directive issued by the Delhi government to discriminate in providing healthcare facilities to patients based on their residence was stuck down by Delhi High Court in 2018.

"It is unfortunate that any responsible government should attempt to discriminate amongst patients on grounds of residence. Rather than discriminating between the patients, the goal of the government should be to plan and prepare for adequate infrastructure. We are all Indians and Delhi belongs to all," it said.

Raising the pitch on the issue, AAP tweeted how many Covid-19 patients are being treated in Centre-run hospitals like AIIMS. It also said BJP-ruled Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were given Rs 245 crore and Rs 966 crore respectively for Covid-19 activities but Delhi received not a single paisa.

"The Centre is not helping Delhi but wants it to treat patients from all over the country," it added.

As on Monday, Delhi had reported 29,943 cases and 874 deaths since the first case was reported on March 2. In June alone, there were 10,099 cases, which is 36.54% of the total cases. In May alone, there were 16,326 cases (54.52% of total cases as of now).

Except for June 1 when the capital reported 990 cases, the city has seen more than 1,000 cases every day. On June 2, it recorded 1,298 cases and it rose 1,513 the next day, the highest spike for any single day.

Since then, there has been a decrease in the number of cases but it has not gone below 1,000 mark. On June 4, there were 1,359 cases while it was 1,330 on June 5, 1,320 on June 6, 1,282 on June 7 and 1,007 on June 8. Also, Delhi is witnessing a gradual decrease in the number of testing.