COVID-19 cases rise to 455 in Delhi; No community transmission but cases could spike, says Kejriwal

With 59 fresh cases, the total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital rose to 445 on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said but asserted that the situation was under control and there was no community transmission of the disease. Of the 3,488 cases of COVID-19 in the country, Delhi has the third highest after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Over 100 medical staff of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital were quarantined after two patients tested positive for the virus, even as the city government demanded that the Centre provide adequate personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. According to Delhi's Health Department, 301 patients out of 445 are those who took part in the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin earlier this month, and Kejriwal said that the number of cases could spike as all 2,300 people evacuated from the Tablighi's 'markaz' were being tested.

Sharing the data, Kejriwal said 59 new cases came in the last 24 hours in the national capital but said the "situation ie under control". The health department said 42 of these cases are linked to he markaz. There were 40 cases of local transmission while a majority of other patients either had foreign travel history or they were recently evacuated from Tablighi Jamaat's Nizamuddin markaz, he said.

"We can say that this is local transmission and not community transmission," he said. In community transmission, people do not get to know from whom they are getting affected but right now no such situation has occurred in Delhi, he said. On Friday, the number of cases had spiralled by 93.

Kejriwal said that till now Delhi has witnessed six deaths due to coronavirus and five of the deceased had serious illness. "Among these six people five were above 60 and one person was 36-year-old. Among these six people, three were from markaz." One person had liver disease, another had sugar, two persons had respiratory disease and one person had heart ailment, he said, adding among all the patients who have coronavirus, around 11 are in ICU and five are on ventilators. "We have found 2,300 people from the Markaz. Among these people, 500 are admitted to various hospitals and around 1800 are in quarantine. We are testing all the people which means the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Delhi will increase," he said. Kejriwal said he is personally monitoring the situation in the national capital and has a record of every person affected by coronavirus.

"Right now, our top priority is to ensure that there should not be any community spread of coronavirus and the second one is if somebody is affected by coronavirus then the person should get the best treatment and no death should happen in Delhi," he said. Kejriwal said due to the Nizamuddin incident and as Delhi already has many foreign patients the number of coronavirus patients have suddenly increased.

Two patients, who were recently brought to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) here due to critical illness, have also tested positive for COVID-19 following which over 100 medical staff have been quarantined. The staff, which include doctors and nurses have been quarantined as per the WHO guidelines, the hospital said in a statement. The Delhi government also sought Centre's help to fight the disease, both in terms of medical equipment and funds.            Kejriwal said Delhi urgently needs Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and the government has already written to the Centre about this.

"I do not want the doctors and nurses to work without the protective gear but the centre is yet to provide us with these kits. I will request the Centre to provide us with PPE kits urgently," he said. Nearly 10 doctors and medical staff in the national capital have been infected due to the disease. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia demanded a disaster fund from the Centre to fight the coronavirus outbreak in Delhi saying it was the third most affected state in the country. In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said the Centre released over Rs 17,000 crore to the states from the Disaster fund but not a single rupee was given to Delhi. "The country should fight as one at this hour. This discrimination is unfortunate," Sisodia, who also heads the finance department, said in a tweet.             At this critical juncture people of Delhi expect a fair and equal treatment by the government, he wrote to Sitharaman pointing that Delhi is the third most affected state in the country. Elaborating on the relief work undertaken by his dispensation, the chief minister said, the Delhi government has distributed lunch to around 6,63,928 people and dinner to around 6,78,544 people. The Delhi government has the arrangement to feed more than 10 lakh people, he said. Kejriwal and Sisodia, during an online interactive session called 'parenting in the time of lockdown', also answered several queries on concerns related to students.

Sisodia, who also holds the charge of education portfolio, has sought suggestions on whether schools in Delhi could conduct classes during summer break to make up for academic loss due to the lockdown over the novel coronavirus pandemic.               The Delhi Police which has been at the forefront in enforcing the lockdown on the ground said till 5 pm, 160 cases were registered and 3,747 people detained for violating government orders during the lockdown. According to the data shared by the police, 167 cases were registered under section 188 (for disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code till 5pm. In total since March 24, 48,071 people have been detained for violating orders under section 65 of the Delhi Police act..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)