Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla reviewed the COVID-19 situation in Delhi on Monday.
The city government stated that 57% of the 15,789 dedicated COVID-19 beds in the Capital are vacant and that Delhi was witnessing a “third surge” in cases.
The meeting was also attended by V.K. Paul, Member of NITI Aayog; Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Director General, ICMR; Chief Secretary, Delhi government; and the Commissioner of Delhi Police.
“While new COVID cases and total active cases are going up, the administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment. The recent surge in active cases is attributed to the festival season, which has witnessed greater movement of people, accompanied by laxity in adhering to the basic principles of safe COVID behaviour. The hospital bed situation was reported to be comfortable with 57% of the 15,789, dedicated beds being vacant,” read a Ministry statement.
It added that the strategy to contain spread of COVID-19 in Delhi was discussed at length, keeping in view the festival season and decreasing temperatures accompanied by rising pollution.
“It was decided that efforts need to be concentrated in key areas such as targeted RT-PCR testing in sensitive and critical zones such as restaurants, market places, barber shops, salons, etc.; bolster availability of medical resources, including beds, ICUs, and ventilators as a pre-emptive measure; ensure high degree of contact tracing and monitoring of quarantined contacts so as to suppress and break the chain of transmission,” the statement added.
Metro travel
It was also emphasised that metro travel should be carefully regulated, strictly in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure that has been issued in this regard. The situation in Delhi will be reviewed again in the coming week, along with other districts of the National Capital Region.