Additional doctors, ICU beds, testing facilities to contain spike in Coroanvirus cases in Delhi: MHA

The development follows the review meeting on Coronavirus situation here by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Nov 15.

Some of them will be sent to Sardar Patel Covid care centre at Chhatarpur to add up the strength of medical staff, the officials added.

The CAPF will deploy 75 doctors and over 250 paramedics from the field formations to strengthen the existing Covid management system here following steep increase in the Covid 19 cases in Delhi and NCR region.

The Ministry informed that Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is adding up 250 ICU beds to its already existing 250 ICU beds and also to create 35 BIPAP beds in next three to four days at its COVID hospital near Delhi airport.

The Indian Railways is making availability of train coaches with 800 beds at Shakur Basti railway station. Doctors and para-medics from CAPFs to man these coaches as COVID care cum isolation facility.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted 10 multi-disciplinary teams to visit more than 100 private hospitals in Delhi for assessing bed utilization and testing capacity and to identify extra ICU beds on directions of Union Home Minister and these teams are on its visits to different private hospitals.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has provided 25 BIPAP machines for Delhi government while Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has dispatched 250 ventilators from Bengaluru which is expected to reach Delhi by weekend. The Ministry has also delivered 35 BIPAP machines to DRDO Covid care facility near Delhi airport. The orientation meeting of Deputy Commissioners of Delhi and other stakeholders has been done by the Union Health Ministry.

The MHA officials also said that the planning for house to house survey in Delhi is in advanced stage and the survey expected to begin by the weekend and completed by November 25.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Delhi Government working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by end November. Testing capacity already enhanced by 10,000 tests per day on November 17 whereas five RT-PCR labs including at AIIMS in Delhi have already started functioning round the clock.

ICMR also to help in augmenting capacity by 2,000 tests of existing Delhi labs by deploying more manpower, increasing number of shifts and placing more equipment and through engagement with private sector labs and also to help Delhi Government in deploying 10 mobile testing labs for COVID with total capacity of 20,000 tests in phased manner beginning next week, the MHA said.