Don't panic, we are prepared, says Kejriwal after emergency meet on Covid-19

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday assured the citizens to not panic amid rising Covid-19 cases in China.

In his briefing after high-level meet on the Covid-19 situation, Kejriwal said the government is fully prepared to fight any spread if it occurs. The chief minister urged people to take precautionary doses at the earliest.

“Covid cases are rising in China and several other countries. It has BF.7 variant. We don't have a single case of that variant in Delhi. So there's no need to worry. We are doing genome sequencing. Currently, XBB variant cases are coming in Delhi”, Kejriwal said.

We have 8,000 beds for Covid in Delhi. Now, we aim to prepare 36,000 beds pertaining to Covid. We have a storage capacity of 928 mt tonne oxygen in Delhi, the chief minister added.

“Only 24% people have taken precaution dose, we request the people to take precaution dose. We have 380 ambulances, we have given orders for procuring more ambulances. We are waiting on the guidelines of Central govt, as and when it gives orders we will implement”, he added, referring to the high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which took place today on Covid-19.

Kejriwal's meeting comes on a day when Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the Centre has directed all the states and union territories to carry out genome sequencing of all positive samples. The random sampling of international passengers at airports has also started.