Pollution played key role in severity of third wave of Covid-19 in Delhi: Kejriwal to PM

At the meeting with the prime minister, Kejriwal also sought the reservation of the additional 1,000 ICU beds in the central government-run hospitals

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that pollution was an important factor for the severity of the third wave of Covid-19 in the national capital.

At a digital meeting of Chief Ministers with the Prime Minister, he told Modi that Delhi saw a peak of 8,600 cases on November 10 in the third peak and since then cases and positivity rate are steadily decreasing.

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Kejriwal told the meeting that the high severity of the third wave in Delhi was due to many factors and pollution was an important factor. He sought Modi's intervention to get rid of pollution caused by stubble-burning in adjoining states, especially in view of the recent bio-decomposer technique.

He also appealed to the Prime Minister to reserve 1,000 ICU beds in central government-run hospitals in the capital for Covid-19 patients while pointing out that there are adequate number of non-ICU Covid-19 beds available but there is a lack of ICU beds.

"We are not concerned about the non-ICU (common) Covid-19 beds, since we have an adequate number of non-ICU beds. Out of the total ICU beds available across Delhi, around 3,500 ICU beds are occupied and 724 ICU beds are still vacant. Home Minister Amit Shah is helping in increasing the ICU beds, but if the central government decides to reserve 1000 beds for the people of Delhi, it will be a great support to us," he said.

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He said that the first wave of Covid-19 in Delhi came in June, during which 20,000 samples were collected every day across the city. The Delhi government had increased the sample collection in September to 60,000 per day.

"The third wave of Covid-19 is still going on in Delhi. Since November 10, the positivity rate in Delhi has been constantly declining, but the rising mortality rate is a matter of concern and we have to reduce the mortality rate. We hope that the mortality rate will also reduce along with the declining positivity ratio in the coming days," Kejriwal said.

On the reasons for increase in cases, he said several factors were instrumental in making the third wave of Covid-19 in Delhi more dangerous.

"The pollution from stubble burning in the neighbouring states has been one of the major reasons," he said demanding Modi's intervention to resolve the issue of stubble burning with the help of bio-decomposer technology.

"We want that under your leadership, the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana should work together as a team to eliminate stubble burning," he added.