Capital to double tests in two days, treble them in six: Shah
COVID BATTLE Home minister spells out action plan after meetings with Kejriwal, Baijal and city mayors
NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah held two separate meetings with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and lieutenant governor Anil Baijal on Sunday, announcing a series of steps, including aggressive testing and the formation of two committees, aimed at augmenting health care infrastructure , possibly capping treatment costs in private hospitals, and effective containment of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the national capital.
Shah, who will hold an allparty meeting on Monday for further assessment of the pandemic situation in the Capital, also announced a comprehensive door-to-door survey in containment zones for contact tracing and promised the city 500 railway coaches having a capacity of 8,000 beds to treat Covid-19 patients to mitigate any possible shortage of beds.
The meetings come amidst a wave of cases in the Capital. Delhi recorded 2,224 cases on Sunday, the third consecutive day it has seen more than 2,000 new infections. It ended Sunday with 41,182 infections (24,032 of them active) and 1,327 deaths. From Monday (June 8) to Sunday, the city has registered 12,246 cases. In the previous week (June 1-7), it recorded 9,092 cases. The number of containment zones in the city, meanwhile, rose from 147 on June 1 to 219 on Sunday.
“To prevent the coronavirus infection in Delhi, testing will be doubled in the next two days, and after six days, testing will be increased to three times...Also, after a few days, testing will be started at every polling station in the containment zones,” Shah said in a series of tweets in Hindi after the first meeting. It was also attended by Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, officials of the home and health ministries and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.
According to the Delhi government’s recent submission in the high court, the combined daily testing capacity of 40 labs — 17 public and 23 private — is 8,600 per day. However, from June 8-13 the city conducted just 5,525 tests per day. Delhi’s per million testing figure stands at 14,666, more than three times the national average of 4,245.
An HT report published on June 6 said the regions where testing is significantly higher than the national average --- such as Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu -- are also the ones with significantly higher infections and deaths, especially when populations are factored in.
Shah also asked private hospitals to earmark 60% of beds allotted for Covid-19 patients at a cheaper rate, a move that came against the backdrop of allegations that such health facilities were charging patients exorbitant fees.