Delhi past peak of second Covid wave, situation controlled to a large extent: Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Delhi is already past the peak of the second wave of the novel coronavirus, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday, adding that the situation has been controlled to a large extent.

"Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported across the city. The situation has been controlled to a large extent," he told reporters on Tuesday. Kejriwal said that the number of fresh cases being reported has seen a decline since and is slowly coming down.

"In hospitals too, suddenly the number of beds occupied has come down. At one point, 7,200 beds were occupied and when I checked this morning, I found 2,000 of those are now vacant. A number of ICU beds are also getting vacant," the chief minister said.

Kejriwal said that total 10,000 Covid-19 beds are now unoccupied in hospitals. "I hope the second wave will slowly pass," he added.

The total number of Covid-19 beds in hospitals is 15,834, out of which 5,571 are occupied and 10,263 vacant.

Kejriwal said that Delhi government increased the testing exponentially to detect the infection, which helps in containing the spread. Testing in Delhi hit the 60,000 a day mark in September compared with 20,000 tests per day in August. As many as 15.2 lakh tests were carried out last month.

On September 24, Kejriwal had said that "experts feel that the number of Covid-19 cases will decline in the coming days."

The capital had recorded more than one lakh Covid-19 cases in September, the highest in a month since March, when the city saw its first Covid-19 case.

A major reason behind this spike is also the record number of tests being carried out - around 50,000 Covid tests each day on average.

The total number of positive Covid-19 cases till Tuesday was 2,95,236, out of which 2,66,935 people have recovered, putting the recovery rate at 90.4%. The death rate on Tuesday was 1.4%.