The clinics will work in shifts and will test people between 2pm-6pm. The working hours of the clinics are 8am-2pm. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)Mohalla Clinics in Delhi will soon be turned into Covid-19 testing centres between 2 pm and 6 pm each day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told The Indian Express Thursday.
The decision has been made to meet the target of conducting 40,000 tests per day, which was set by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as cases in the city have started increasing again after a dip for around three weeks.
On Thursday, the city recorded the highest single-day spike in 67 days as 2,737 new cases were reported. Over 32,800 tests were conducted in the same period. The death toll in the city mounted to 4,500 with 19 more deaths recorded.
Presently, 452 mohalla clinics are operational in the city and around 20 are lying shut. The primary health centres, which have been one of the most ambitious projects of the Aam Aadmi Party, saw 37,05,904 people coming in for consultations between April and July this year.
The clinics will work in shifts and will test people between 2pm-6pm. The working hours of the clinics are 8am-2pm.
“The clinics will be open for testing only once the routine work has been completed. This is to ensure that there is no spread of the disease among the general public. On average, 10-15 people per clinic can be tested on a daily basis,” Jain said.
“Doctors, assistants and pharmacists attended to patients and are also helping conduct the sero surveillance. Nine new clinics have opened up in the last three months,” said Dr Shalley kamra, Mohalla Clinic project in charge.
Each mohalla clinic has a doctor, a technician and a lab assistant.
“Clinics do not have enough space to accommodate the daily patient load and those coming for testing, so we proposed the plan to run the clinic in double shifts. We have strictly suggested that the clinics will have to be sanitised thoroughly before it opens for the general public the next day,” said a senior official from the state health department.
Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Delhi had seen an increase in the case fatality trajectory.
Delhi is among the five states, apart from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, that account for almost 70% of Covid-19 deaths in the country. Of the five states, Delhi and Karnataka are reporting an increase in the number of daily deaths over the past three weeks.