Manish Sisodia takes over Delhi's Health Ministry as Satyendar Jain tests Covid positive

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has been given the additional charge of the state's Health Ministry and other departments allocated to Satyendar Jain as the latter tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The office of Satyendar Jain had stated that Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tested positive for COVID-19 at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. He was admitted to the hospital after complained of high fever and difficulty in breathing on June 15. The Delhi Health Minister had tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Three other AAP MLAs- Atishi from Kalkaji, Vishesh Ravi from Karol Bagh, and Rajkumar Anand from Patel Nagar have also tested positive for COVID-19. On June 14, Jain had participated in a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs where Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Delhi LG Anil Baijal, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Delhi Chief Secretary, and Home Secretary were also present. Akshay Marathe, a prominent media panelist of AAP has contracted the COVID-19 infection as well. 

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COVID-19 crisis in Delhi 

A total of 2,414 COVID-19 positive cases and 67 deaths were reported in Delhi on Wednesday. As many as 510 people were discharged from hospitals. Currently, there are 47,102 novel coronavirus cases in Delhi out of which 17,457 patients have been discharged while 1,904 fatalities have been reported.

After the Centre took over the COVID-19 situation in the national capital, the Delhi government has directed to cap the COVID testing rate at Rs 2,400, as per Home Minister Amit Shah's directive. Moreover, testing too has been doubled from 4000-5000 daily to 16,618 samples in two days - June 15 and 16, stated the MHA. While reports of 6,510 have been received, the remaining will be received by 18 June. Delhi is the third to cap testing rates after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The MHA has also stated that from 18 June, Delhi will be given priority to test COVID-19 patients via Rapid Antigen method, approved by ICMR. The apex science council has stated that the negative results of the antigen must be confirmed by RT-PCR tests. MHA stated that 177,692 people have been surveyed in the 242 containment zones by June 15-16, the remaining will be surveyed by June 20.

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