Delhi govt prepares 'Revised COVID Response Plan'; entire city to be screened by July 6

The AAP government on Wednesday, June 23, prepared a 'Revised COVID Response Plan' which envisages the completion of house-to-house screening in Delhi by July 6. This plan, based on the recommendations of the Dr.VK Paul Committee, assumes significance at a juncture when Delhi is witnessing a record spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. With 3947 persons testing positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, Delhi's COVID-19 tally surged to 66,602 besides 2301 deaths. The plan also aims at strengthening surveillance at the district level, review, and improvement of containment zone strategy, strengthening contact tracing, enhanced use of the Aarogya Setu app, and conducting a serological survey. 

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Here are some of the features of the COVID Response plan: 

• The COVID-19 surveillance response in Delhi will be strengthened at the district level. At present, the District Task Force is headed by the District Magistrate. The members of the response teams will now include other members such as epidemiologists, District Surveillance Officer (DSO), IT professionals to monitor the Aarogya Setu app, etc.
• According to the Ministry of Health guidelines, the existing containment zone plan would be evaluated and revised to have an adequate number of buffer zones. 
• COVID-19 patients and cluster cases in densely populated areas will be sent to COVID Care Centres. More teams will be created for contact tracing, testing, and isolating patients.
• The police shall be deployed to ensure that people maintain social distancing norms in containment zones. Moreover, CCTVs and drones will be used to monitor movement. Violators face penalties.
• High-risk and low-risk contacts will be categorized as per the Ministry of Health guidelines.
• Field teams shall be set up for fast and effective contact tracing and for quarantine of high-risk contacts.
• All symptomatic and asymptomatic high-risk contacts of COVID-19 cases must be tested between the 5th and 10th day of contact.
• The use of the Aarogya Setu app and ITIHAS system will be enhanced.
• A serological survey will be carried out from June 27 to July 10. 20,000 tests will be conducted in all the districts in collaboration with the National Centre for Disease Control.

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