Amit Shah chairs all-party meeting to discuss Covid-19 situation in Delhi

Home  Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired an all-party meeting to review the management of coronavirus situation in Delhi.

During the course of the meeting, Congress demanded that Covid-19 testing should be provided to all, as it is everyone's right. The party has also demanded that Rs 10,000 should be paid to every family whose member is infected or in containment zone according to sources.

According to PTI Congress has also demanded that 4th-year medical students should be used as non-permanent resident doctors. Due to the crunch of healthcare staff, 4th-year students of Bachelor of Pharmacy or nursing should be used as alternate for health staff.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh and Delhi Congress President Anil Kumar Chaudhary arrived for the meeting, among leaders from other political parties.

Earlier, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Kumar Gupta had said that he would give suggestions like slashing private lab rates for Covid-19 testing, centralisation of COVID clinics and hospitals and roping in NCC and NSS volunteers to fill the requirements of ever-dwindling medical support staff, during the meet.

Over 41,000 people were infected with the coronavirus disease in Delhi and it has claimed more than 1,300 lives so far. The number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi is the third highest in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

On Sunday, the home minister held two high-level meetings with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, mayors and commissioners of Delhi's three municipal corporations to strengthen the strategy to fight the coronavirus.

Shah had announced that testing will be doubled in Delhi in the next two days and subsequently tripled.

Announcing a slew of measures after the meeting, Shah said virus tests would be started at every polling station in the containment zones and a comprehensive house-to-house health survey would be conducted in the hotspots for contact tracing.