The heads of all Delhi government hospitals, Deputy Commissioners of the three civic bodies, and the DCPs who are in charge of police districts, will now work under the command of District Magistrates to effectively deal with the COVID-19 situation in the Capital.
Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, who is the chairperson of the State Executive Committee of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), has empowered all DMs to have overall command in their respective districts.
“The DM is responsible for overall management of COVID-19 pandemic... and shall implement all the guidelines, SOPs, orders and directions of the DDMA, Ministry of Home Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority,” read the order issued by Mr. Dev.
Testing charges
The move is in line with strategies discussed during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on June 14.
Meanwhile, the MHA said that a high-level expert committee submitted a report on COVID-19 testing rates, and it has been decided to fix the rate at ₹2,400.
Over 2,400 cases
The decisions come on a day when Delhi reported 2,414 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 47,102. As per the heath bulletin issued by the Delhi government, 67 deaths were reported in a single day, taking the toll to 1,904.
A total of 510 people recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 17,457. There are 27,741 of active cases in the city and 242 containment zones.
An MHA spokesperson added that acting on instructions given by Mr. Shah to increase testing in Delhi, 16,618 samples were collected on June 15 and 16. Till June 14, daily collection varied between 4,000-4,500 samples. “Reports of 6,510 tests received so far, remaining to be received by Thursday,” the spokesperson said.
Health surveys
To improve contact mapping in Delhi’s containment zones, health surveys have been started on the directions of Mr. Shah and out of a total population of 2,30,466 in the 242 containment zones, survey of 1,77,692 people was conducted between June 15-16. The remaining will be covered by June 20, the spokesperson said.
Rapid Antigen tests
The MHA added that to increase testing and quick delivery of results in Delhi from June 18, tests will be done via new Rapid Antigen methodology approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research. “Delhi will be given priority for these kits. 169 centers have also been set up across the city,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after reviewing COVID-19 preparations on Wednesday, tweeted that the Capital may need more ICUs in the coming days and said that he has discussed with Delhi government doctors how to increase the number.
Expert panel
Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday held the first meeting with a six-member expert panel constituted by him to suggest measures to deal with the COVID-19 situation in the city.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Mr. Dev and other senior officers of the Delhi government.
Mr. Baijal asked the panel to suggest measures to make containment strategies more effective, formulate measures for psycho-social care of ‘corona warriors’ and come up with strategies to ramp up intensive medical care expeditiously.
The L-G said he had also asked for suggestions on containment and mitigation strategies in addition to projections for Delhi based on the trends worldwide.
“I am confident that the panel will provide the necessary expertise to fight this pandemic more effectively,” he tweeted.