Ramp up testing, administration of booster doses: Congress to Delhi govt

The Delhi Congress on Friday demanded that the Kejriwal government ramp up daily testing and intensify the drive for the administration of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines in view of the uptick in coronavirus infections in the city.

The daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi have been on the rise over the last few days and the positivity rate has jumped from 0.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent in a week.

Delhi reported 325 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, 299 on Wednesday and 137 on Monday, according to health department data.

The health department did not issue a bulletin on Tuesday.

Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said lockdown and closure of schools cannot be the way to tackle a surge in COVID-19 cases.

"The Kejriwal government should ensure that people adhere to COVID-19 protocol in public places instead of taking the easy way out and enforcing another total lockdown," he said.

The Congress leader said the government should ramp up the number of daily RT-PCR tests to check the spread of the coronavirus, ensure hospitals are ready to deal with any eventuality and administer the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines free of cost.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said the Delhi government is keeping an eye on the COVID-19 situation and there is no need to panic since hospitalisations are low.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority will hold a meeting on April 20 to discuss measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the city.

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi had touched the record high of 28,867 on January 13 this year during the third wave of the pandemic.

The city had recorded a positivity rate of 30.6 per cent on January 14, the highest during the third wave of the pandemic which was largely driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.