Amit Shah pledges more ICU beds, testing as Delhi cases keep rising

To deal with the recent spike in coronavirus cases in Delhi, the Centre on Sunday said it will soon make available 300 additional ICU beds and double the number of daily RT-PCR tests in the national capital.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also said some of the hospitals under the municipal corporations of Delhi will be converted into dedicated Covid hospitals and doctors and paramedics of paramilitary forces will be deployed in the national capital to deal with the shortage of manpower.

Shah said to save more lives, the Centre will also provide oxygen, high flow nasal cannula and other health equipments to Delhi.

The decisions were taken at a high level meeting chaired by Shah and attended by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan among others.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Shah said daily RT-PCR tests in Delhi will be doubled, the capacity of the testing laboratories will be enhanced and mobile testing vans of the Union Health Ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will be deployed in the areas where the Covid-19 threat is high.

He said the meeting resolved to enhance the capacity of Delhi's hospitals and in this direction, 300 ICU beds will be made available at the DRDO Covid hospital (Dhaula Kuan) in addition to the existing 250 ICU beds.

The home minister said toincrease the number of oxygen beds, the 10,000-bedded Chhatarpur Covid care centre will be strengthened and some of the hospitals of the municipal corporations of Delhi will be converted into dedicated Covid hospitals.

The home minister reviewed the situation arising due to the spike in Covid-19 cases in Delhi and discussed ways to deal with it, a home ministry official said.

Delhi recorded 3,235 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the infection tally to over 485,000 on Sunday, while ninety-five more fatalities pushed the death toll to 7,614.

The meeting was convened to devise a strategy to contain the spread of the virus in Delhi, especially in view of the festive season and decreasing temperatures accompanied by rising pollution, the official said.