Centre to provide 500 railway coaches to Delhi in view of shortage of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients: Shah

Mr Shah and Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan held a meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others to review the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.

In a series of tweets after the meeting, Mr Shah said, ''In view of shortage of beds for Corona infected patients in Delhi, the Modi government at the Centre has decided to immediately give 500 railway coaches to Delhi.''

These railway coaches will not only increase 8000 beds in Delhi but this coaches will be equipped with all facilities to fight the corona infection, he said.

Mr Shah said, ''In order to get contact mapping done properly in Delhi's Containment Zones, a comprehensive health survey of every person will be done from house to house, whose report will come in 1 week.''

''Also, to get effective monitoring, the Arogya Setu app will be downloaded in every person's mobile,'' he said.

Mr Shah said to stop the spread of corona infection in Delhi, testing of corona will be doubled in the next two days and after 6 days the testing will be increased to three times.

''Also, after a few days, testing will be started at every polling station in the Containment Zones,'' he said.

AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, members of the State Disaster Management Authority and other top officials were also present in the meeting.

Mr Shah, along with Dr Vardhan, will hold a meeting with mayors of municipal corporations of  Delhi on Sunday evening at 1700 hrs to review preparations with regard to COVID-19.

The L-G and Mr Kejriwal will also be there in the meeting along with the AIIMS Director, the three Municipal Commissioners of the three MCs that are the North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations and the officers of the union as well as the state health ministries.

Meanwhile, the pandemic situation in the national capital is worsening with a sharp spike being witnessed in the number of fresh infections every day.

A total of 2134 new novel coronavirus cases have surfaced in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the count to 38958, Delhi health bulletin said on Saturday night.

The figure includes  22742 active cases and 14945 recovered, the health bulletin said.

As per the health bulletin, with 57 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, city's death toll has mounted to 1271.

The national capital on Friday too registered highest single-day spike after 2,137 COVID-19 infections surfaced, taking the city's tally to 36,824.