The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Wednesday listed out a number of measures that it said were underway in Delhi to bring the Capital’s Covid-19 situation in control, days after Union home minister Amit Shah chaired an emergency meeting and announced steps to bring the situation in the city under control.
The national capital reported 6,396 cases of the coronavirus disease on Tuesday, up from 3,797 infections on Monday. The city’s Covid-19 tally stood at 495,598, including 7,812 deaths, according to a government bulletin on Tuesday.
The home ministry shared the details of the measures being taken following Shah’s announcement of the 12-point plan on Sunday. “Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to add 250 ICU beds to its already existing 250 ICU beds and also to create 35 BiPAP (Bilevel positive airway pressure) beds in the next 3-4 days at Covid hospital near Delhi airport,” the ministry tweeted.
The ministry said 45 doctors and 160 paramedics from the paramilitary forces had already arrived in Delhi for deployment at the DRDO Covid-19 hospital and the Chhatarpur Covid care centre. The remaining doctors, it said, will arrive in the next few days.
MHA also said that it had constituted ten multi-disciplinary teams to visit more than 100 private hospitals in Delhi in order to identify extra intensive care unit (ICU) beds. “Indian Railways making available train coaches with 800 beds at the Shakur Basti railway station to be manned as Covid care cum isolation facility,” it tweeted.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) had dispatched 250 ventilators from Bengaluru which would reach Delhi by the weekend, the ministry said, adding that while 35 BiPAP machines had been provided by the Union health ministry to the DRDO facility, 25 would be provided for the Delhi government.
“Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by end November,” MHA posted in another tweet. Ten mobile testing labs with a total capacity of 20,000 would be deployed in a phased manner from next week, the ministry added.
All the measures detailed by the MHA in its Twitter thread on Wednesday are among the 12 points that were put out by Shah following the emergency meeting held on Sunday. The meeting had taken place amid concerns over the worsening pandemic situation in Delhi.
