MHA lists steps taken to deal with Delhi's COVID-19 situation; ICMR & BEL step it up

Taking to Twitter, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed people of the steps taken to contain and control the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi. As per the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the concerned authorities informed that the government will be taking steps including deploying mobile testing labs, adding more beds at COVID hospital wards and ICUs apart from the doctors and paramedics from the paramilitary forces who are arriving in Delhi to join the COVID-19 warriors in the national capital's fight against the spread of infection.

This comes just days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level emergency meeting at the North Block to take stock of the current COVID-19 situation in Delhi on November 15, which was attended by Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

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Ministry of Home Affairs Steps in

In a series of tweets, MHA informed that in order to make testing easily available and accessible,  Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will be helping the Delhi government in deploying a total of 10 mobile COVID-19 testing labs with the capacity of 20,000 tests in a phased manner from next week onwards.  This step comes as Shah instructed ICMR and Delhi government were instructed to work together to enhance the RT-PCR testing capacity of the national capital to about 60,000 by the end of November. Since the meeting, the testing capacity has already been raised by 10,000 tests per day by November 17. Under this initiative 5 RT-PCR labs including the ones at AIIMS, Delhi, have started working 24/7. ICMR is also working to enhance the testing capacity of the labs across Delhi by about 2,000 tests and in order to do so, it plans to engage more manpower, increase the number of shifts and place more equipment in the labs. 

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The Ministry further informed that DRDO will be doubling up the number of beds in the ICU and 35 new BIPAP beds will be added to its COVID-19 designated hospital near the Delhi Airport in the next 3 to 4 days. It was earlier reported that a total of  75 doctors and 250 paramedics from paramilitary will be joining the health care workers in the national capital to manage the current COVID-19 situation. MHA informed that a total of 45 doctors and 160 paramedics from the Central Armed Police Forces have already arrived in Delhi, while the rest will reach the national capital in the next few days. Ministry of Home Affairs informed that the doctors who have already arrived will be deployed at the DRDO hospital near Delhi airport and at COVID care centre at Chhatarpur.

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Following the meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah, it was decided that Indian Railways would ensure availability of train coaches with about 800 beds at the Shakur Basti Railway station as COVID-19 case cum isolation facility, and the paramilitary doctors and paramedics will manage the coaches. Furthermore, MHA stated that house to house survey in Delhi is in the advance stage of planning and is expected to commence by the weekend and conclude by 25 November. 

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