New Delhi: Grappling with the seemingly unending third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modis intervention to ensure Delhis neighbouring states use the Pusa bio-decomposer to stop stubble burning. The CM was meeting with the PM along with chief ministers of other states on Tuesday when he is learnt to have blamed stubble burning for the increased severity of the third wave of the pandemic here. "The Delhi governments use of bio decomposer developed by the Pusa Agricultural Institute has shown the way forward and that the neighbouring states should implement it. We want that under your leadership, the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana should work together as a team to eliminate stubble burning" he said," the CM said. And while the meeting was to focus on ways for states to prepare vaccine delivery mechanisms, the CM also pointed out to the Prime Minister that ICU beds in the city for COVID-19 patients were running out fast and requested that 1,000 ICU beds be reserved for Coronavirus hospitals in central government-run Safdarjung and AIIMS hospitals here. Out of the total beds reserved for COVID in all government and private hospitals across the city, 9,400 beds are occupied while 8,500 beds are still vacant. "Out of the total ICU beds available across Delhi, around 3,500 ICU beds are occupied and 724 ICU beds are still vacant," Kejriwal said. However, despite this, a senior official in the CMs office told Millennium Post that CM Kejriwal insisted that the third wave had peaked and that cases have started to come under control since November 10. The chief minister said that after November 10, the daily positivity rate has declined consistently and that while the first wave saw Delhi test 20,000 samples daily, the third wave has seen the city break its own testing record multiple times, testing over 62,000 samples in 24 hours on some occasions. "We hope that the mortality rate will also reduce along with the declining positivity ratio in the coming days," he said. Significantly, the CM also had a lengthy discussion on the upcoming vaccines and the mechanism of distribution in the Capital, an official in the Delhi government said. "The Delhi government has begun the process of identifying Health care workers so that when the vaccine is there they will be the first to be administered," the above-mentioned official said, adding that the state government is looking into several methods of distribution.

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