Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said a third wave of coronavirus is now sweeping through the city and the government is preparing for all contingencies. There would soon also be a decision on the use of firecrackers in the city during the festival season, he said.
“For some time now, Delhi has seen an increase in the number of the coronavirus cases. We may refer to it as the third wave. We are holding a review meeting tomorrow over this,” Chief Minister Kejriwal said today while inspecting the process of converting stubble to fertiliser at Hiranki village.
He said authorities are preparing to ensure there is no shortage of hospital beds during any emergencies.
“We are also going to contest in the Supreme Court that high court order on our rule to reserve up to 80% ICU beds reserved (for COVID-19 patients) in private hospitals,” Mr Kejriwal said.
In September, the Delhi high court stayed the Delhi government order, saying that prima facie, the order appeared to be “arbitrary”, “unreasonable”, and in violation of the fundamental rights of an individual. The state government is mulling over a ban on the bursting of firecrackers which usually peak during the festival season in the winter.
Delhi on Tuesday witnessed its highest single-day jump in COVID-19 cases as 6,725 persons were declared positive based on 59,540 tests. The positivity rate stood at 11.29%. The number of new cases has steadily increased in the city over the past few days, with a total of over 6,600 deaths recorded till now.
The figure for India is over 8.3 million cases till now and 1.24 lakh deaths.
