Coronavirus: Delhi government to give pulse oximeters to those in home isolation, says CM Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Monday that his government will give pulse oximeters to the COVID-19 patients under home isolation and said the number of coronavirus tests has increased by three times in the national capital.

Addressing an online media briefing, Kejriwal said in the last one week, there was a rise of only 1,000 active coronavirus cases, which indicates that the COVID-19 situation is slowly getting stabilised in the city.

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From June 15 to 21, Delhi reported 18,564 coronavirus cases. However, 16,790 people also recovered from the disease in the national capital in the said period.

The chief minister said till now, Delhi did not require beds for COVID-19 patients on a large scale as most of them recovered from the disease, adding that the number of serious patients is also less in the national capital.

He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is getting "enough support" to arrest the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi.

"We will give pulse oximeters to the COVID-19 patients under home isolation. Every district will have oxygen concentrators. Delhi will soon have a helpline and our team will go to the houses of the patients who are recovering from the disease to provide oxygen," Kejriwal said.

The patients can return the pulse oximeters to the government after they have fully recovered, he added.

Kejriwal said Delhi currently has 25,000 active COVID-19 cases and of these, 12,000 people are under home isolation, adding that around 18,000 coronavirus tests are being conducted daily in the city.

Until a few weeks ago, around 5,000 COVID-19 tests were being conducted daily in the national capital.

With the Centre's help, antigen tests, which give the results within 30 minutes, have also been started in Delhi, the chief minister said.

He said as on June 12, a total of 5,300 beds were occupied in all the hospitals in the city.

"As of now, 6,200 beds have been occupied, which means only 900 more beds have been occupied in the last 10 days...7,000 beds are still available.

"This means that the number of new coronavirus patients admitted in hospitals is almost the same as that of the people recovering from the disease and going back to their homes," the chief minister said.

There was some chaos a few days ago as regards availability of beds, he said, while asserting that his government has worked on a war-footing to increase the number of beds in government and private hospitals.