Union Home Minister Amit Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said some of the hospitals under the municipal corporations of Delhi will be converted into dedicated COVID hospitals and doctors and paramedics of paramilitary forces will be deployed in the national capital to deal with the shortage of manpower. To deal with the recent spike in coronavirus cases in Delhi, the Centre said it will soon make available 300 additional ICU beds and double the number of daily RT-PCR tests in the national capital.
The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Shah and attended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan among others. Shah said to save more lives, the Centre will also provide oxygen, high flow nasal cannula and other health equipment to Delhi.
Here are the highlights from the Union Minister's announcement:
- Daily RT-PCR tests in Delhi will be doubled, the capacity of the testing laboratories will be enhanced and mobile testing vans of the Union Health Ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will be deployed in the areas where the COVID-19 threat is high.
- Few MCD hospitals to be converted into COVID dedicated hospitals for treatment of COVID patients with mild symptoms.
- Dedicated multi-department teams to visit all private hospitals in Delhi for inspection of availability of COVID-19 medical infrastructure, admission of patients and availability of beds.
- More oxygen cylinders, High Flow Nasal Cannula and other necessary equipments to be made available to Delhi Government by the Central Government.
- To enhance the capacity of Delhi's hospitals and in this direction, 300 ICU beds will be made available at the DRDO COVID hospital (Dhaula Kuan) in addition to the existing 250 ICU beds.
- To increase the number of oxygen beds, the 10,000-bedded Chhatarpur COVID care centre will be strengthened and some of the hospitals of the municipal corporations of Delhi will be converted into dedicated COVID hospitals.
- Directions are given for protocol to be made for plasma donation and transfusion in the case of COVID-19 patients. A high-level committee headed by Dr VK Paul, AIIMS and DG ICMR will submit a report on this soon.
- Review of all previously established containment measures like marking of containment zones, contact tracing, quarantine and screening in Delhi.
Delhi recorded 3,235 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to over 4.85 lakh on Sunday, while ninety-five more fatalities pushed the death toll to 7,614.
The meeting was convened to devise a strategy to contain the spread of the virus in Delhi, especially in view of the festive season and decreasing temperatures accompanied by rising pollution, the official said.
(With inputs from PTI)
