Delhi records highest 24-hour COVID-19 spike, Centre says tests to be doubled in 48 hours

 

New Delhi: As Delhi recorded yet another spike of coronavirus cases on Sunday, the Centre stepped in and issued a slew of measures to control the rise of COVID-19 infections. Delhi for the third successive day reported over 2,000 cases in a day, with 2,224 new positive cases and 56 more fatalities on Sunday. The tally has risen to 41,182 cases with the death count at 1,327. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday convened two back-to-back high level meetings where Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the COVID-19 crisis. He said testing will be doubled in the next two days and increased to three times after six days.

In a series of tweets in Hindi Amit Shah said: "To prevent coronavirus infection in Delhi, testing will be doubled in the next two days and after six days the testing will be increased to three times. Also, after a few days, the testing will be started at every polling station in the containment zones."  

In the matter of shortage of hospital beds in Delhi, Shah said the Centre has decided to immediately provide 500 railway coaches equipped with all facilities. The number of beds is set rise by 8,000 with the provision of railway coaches.

Shah said the Centre will provide the Delhi government necessary resources like oxygen cylinders, ventilators and pulse oximeters. "The Modi government is determined to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection in the country's capital," Shah said.

 

Key decisions taken by MHA: 

* 500 coaches to be made COVID-19 wards with 8,000 beds

*  Contact mapping across all containment zones

*  Coronavirus testing to be doubled in two days and tripled in six days

*  House to house survey and contract tracing will be carried out.

*  Aarogya Setu app to be made compulsory in containment zones in the national capital.

While Kejriwal termed his meeting with Shah as "extremely productive" and said the Centre and the Delhi government ar eunited in this fight against the COVID-19. "Extremely productive meeting betn Del govt and Central govt. Many key decisions taken. We will fight against corona together (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had designated Amit Shah and Health Minister Harshvardhan to plan a coordinated and comprehensive response to handle the challenge posed by rising cases of COVID-19. 

The Delhi government on Sunday withdrew its earlier order declaring all nursing homes with bed strength between 10 to 49 as COVID-19 nursing homes.

 

Meanwhile, 

While as many as 7,353 tests were conducted in 24 hours, and in the days to come the target is touch 10,000 tests a day in Delhi. Earlier, the number of tests per day was between 5000 and 5700.