Delhi govt to scale up testing for coronavirus: Kejriwal

The Delhi government has decided to scale up testing for coronavirus to at least 1,000 people a day so that positive cases are identified at the earliest, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said here on Monday.

The chief minister said the total number of cases in the national capital has reached 523, of which 330 are from the Nizamuddin Markaz.

One person has died due to the disease in the city since Sunday afternoon, while 20 fresh cases have been reported, Kejriwal said.

"We are aiming to test at least 1000 people every day," he said, adding that since April 1, the Delhi government has been testing 500 people daily.

Kejriwal said the government is getting testing kits and the number of tests for the virus have been increased.

An order has been placed for one lakh testing kits, which will be available from Friday, and the number of tests per day will be increased further, the chief minister said.

The chief minister said 25 coronavirus patients were in ICU and eight on ventilator support, while the remaining were stable.

He added that the Centre has allotted 27,000 PPE kits for Delhi and he was thankful for that.