Vinit Wahi / New Delhi

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said that the Delhi government is prepared to battle against the next possible corona wave and has doubled the number of ICU beds since the last wave.

A graded response system has been started out by the government to take decisions at the right time against the next possible corona wave. He also informed that the Central Government still hasn’t asked for the data regarding the deaths due to lack of oxygen and the next Sero survey will start soon.

Talking about the steps being taken by the Delhi Government for preparing against the next possible wave, the minister said, “In order to prepare for any such new wave of the virus, the Delhi Government is preparing 37,000 beds out of which, 12,000 are ICU beds. In the last wave, the Delhi government had prepared 22,000-23,000 beds out of which 6,000 were ICU beds; this time around we have doubled the number of the ICU beds and have added more beds overall as well.

Along with this, the Delhi government has also started a ‘Graded Response System’. In this system, when the positivity rate reaches to a 0.5% or out of 1000 people tested 5 are positive, then the first level of this system will be implemented.

The second level will be implemented when we will reach a positivity rate of 1%, meaning that 10 people test positive out of 1000 people tested, the third level will be implemented at a positivity rate of 2%, when 20 people test positive out of a testing sample of 1000 people and the last stage or the red level will be underway when we reach a positivity rate of 5%, meaning that 50 people test positive out of the 1000 people tested. Last time, the red level was implemented when we had reached a positivity rate of about 14-15%.”