Delhi to conduct 1 lakh random tests at hotspots

AK unveils 5-point plan, says testing, tracking, treatment to go up

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday, unveiled a ‘5T’ action plan to combat the novel coronavirus and said that the administration will conduct 1 lakh random tests for the deadly disease in the city’s hotspot areas.

The five-point plan consists of rapid random testing at hotspots, tracing patients, scaling-up treatment for up to 30,000 active patients, teamwork with Central and state governments, and tracking.

Delhi is the first state in the country to go for random testing to detect Covid-19 carriers.

The chief minister stressed that there was an urgent need to learn from other countries on how to tackle the deadly virus and that one should be three steps ahead of the disease. Elaborating on the action plan, he said, “The first ‘T’ is testing. If you don’t test, you won’t be able to find out which houses have been affected. It’ll go on spreading. South Korea identified every single individual through large scale testing. We are now going to do large scale testing like South Korea.”

Mr Kejriwal said that the government has started receiving 50,000 testing kits.

“We have also placed orders for 1,00,000 testing kits. From Friday, we will be equipped to hold rapid tests. Wherever we have hotspots like Markaz (Nizamuddin) and Dilshad Garden, we will hold random tests.”

Mr Kejriwal said that the second step is tracing.

He said, “We have also started taking the help of the police. We have given them the phone numbers of 27,702 people to find out if the people, under self-quarantine, are indeed staying at homes. Today we are going to give 2,000 phone numbers of people who were brought out of Markaz to find out if they roamed in the area. The areas they went out to, will be sealed and monitored.”

The state government has declared Lok Nayak Hospital, GB Pant Hospital, and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital for treatment of

Covid-19 patients only. Mr Kejriwal said 2,950 beds have been kept ready only for coronavirus patients. Of these,

400 beds are in private hospitals — Max (Saket), Apollo, and Ganga Ram.

The chief minister said if Delhi has 30,000 active patients, the government will take over 8,000 beds in hospitals, 12,000 hotel rooms, and 10,000 patients will be in banquets and dharamshalas.

He said, “We have also planned at what stage we will need it. We are also prepping for ventilators and PPE (personal placement equipment) kits and what are the numbers we will need.”

Mr Kejriwal said it was his responsibility to monitor 24x7 whether the administration was doing its job as assigned to them. He, however, praised both the state and the Central governments for rising above political interests to fight the Covid-19 battle.

He said, “I am happy that all governments — state and Central — and agencies are also working together. We need to ensure team work and learn from other states and their best practices. We need to ensure that if the lockdown is lifted in one state, patients from other states don’t go and infect there. If we stay three steps ahead of coronavirus, we will be able to defeat it.”

The chief minister said if Delhi has 30,000 active patients, the government will take over

8,000 beds in hospitals,

12,000 hotel rooms, and

10,000 patients will be in banquets and dharamshalas