New Delhi – India’s capital has become the epicentre of new cases of Covid-19 with over 3,000 cases per day reported for a third day.
As cases surge, Delhi’s health minister has been isolated after testing positive for Covid-19, according to a tweet by India’s home minister Amit Shah.
“Praying for the speedy recovery of Shri Satyendra Jain, Health Minister of Delhi who is battling with COVID-19 infection,” he said in a tweet.
Total tally of infections is at 59,746, with 18,564 cases, a little less than a third, reported in the last one week.
The death toll in Delhi has reached 2,175, with recovered cases at 33,013.
As many as 63 patients have died in the last 24 hours, the highest number of deaths in a single day in the city state.
After the lockdown was relaxed on May 18, Delhi has seen a sudden spike in cases. It continues to be among the worst-affected states with Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Citing the rapid surge in COVID-19 count, Union home minister Amit Shah has held several meetings with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan and senior officials to discuss an action plan.
A central government panel set up on the direction of Shah has called for a complete overhaul of the Covid-19 containment strategy in Delhi, recommending a fresh delineation of containment zones in the capital.
Under a new plan every district of Delhi is to be linked with a big hospital for extending appropriate medical help to Covid19 patients.
Seeking to streamline the testing process, the Union Health Ministry launched a dedicated RT-PCR mobile-based app for labs to fill the data at the point of sample collection.
Delhi government has made it mandatory for all lab collection and testing centres to download that app.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal said the government has more than tripled its testing from 5,000 to 18,000 tests a day, most of them through a rapid testing process that yields results in around 30 minutes.
117 private hospitals have been asked to allocate 20% of beds for coronavirus patients.
On June 12, Kejriwal said, 5,300 beds across hospitals in Delhi were occupied; on Monday, that figure had increased to 6,300.
According to the health bulletin released Sunday, the city currently has 12,651 beds in hospitals for corona virus patients including 6,597 vacant beds.
Similarly, it’s Covid Care Centres have a total of 5,909 beds, including 4,883 vacant beds.
Another 344 beds are available at dedicated Covid health centres in the city.
