‘Testing in Capital to be tripled in six days’

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a productive meeting on Sunday with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the COVID-19 situation in the Capital, following which Shah announced that testing in the Capital will be increased threefold in the next six days.

After the meeting, a slew of measures was announced to check the spread of the coronavirus, including a plan to conduct COVID-19 tests at every polling station in containment zones to dramatically increase testing rates here. A comprehensive houseto-house health survey will be carried out in hotspots for contact tracing and mapping. The report of these tests will be submitted within a week.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, the Home Minister said, “To prevent coronavirus infection in Delhi, testing will be doubled in the next two days and after six days the testing will be increased to three times.”

The Aap-led government in Delhi has been under the spotlight over the handling of COVID-19 cases in the Capital with many complaining about the non-availability of beds in hospitals for patients and difficulty in getting tested. In comments after the meeting, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the meeting with Shah was “extremely productive” and that Delhi and the Centre would fight the pandemic together.

“Also, after a few days, the testing will be started at every polling station in the containment zones,” Shah said. In order to efficiently conduct contact mapping in Delhi’s containment zones, a comprehensive health survey of every person will be done from house to

house. Aarogya Setu app will be downloaded in every person’s mobile, added Shah. According to the Delhi government’s recent submissions

in the Delhi High Court, the combined daily testing capacity of 40 labs, 17 public and 23 private, stands at around 8,600 per day.

After the meeting, the Home Ministry also directed the immediate transfer of four IAS officers - Awanish Kumar and Monica Priyadarshini from A&N (Andaman and Nicobar Islands); and Gaurav Singh Rajawat and Vikram Singh Mallik from Arunachal Pradesh to New Delhi to assist the Delhi government with the COVID-19 situation.

Two senior IAS officers, SCL Das and SS Yadav, from the central government, were also deputed to assist Delhi with its battle against the pandemic.

In view of a purported shortage of beds for coronavirus infected patients, the Central government has also decided to provide 500 railway coaches which will be equipped with all facilities to treat COVID-19 patients. Also, detailed guidelines are expected to be issued for conducting the last rites of those who succumb to the deadly virus, said Shah in a tweet. With the railway coaches provided by the Centre, the number of beds in the Capital will rise by 8,000 beds. As of Saturday, Delhi has a total of 9,714 COVID-19 beds, of which around 4,200 are vacant.

Shah said a joint team of doctors of the Union Health Ministry, State Health Department, AIIMS and the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi will visit all COVIDdesignated hospitals and prepare a report after inspecting their health systems and preparedness of each hospital. Apart from Shah, Baijal and Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, members of the State Disaster Management Authority and senior officers from the home and health ministries also attended the meeting.