Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday held a meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, Delhi Health Minister Saytendar Jain and other senior officials regarding the surge in COVID-19 cases and the high positivity rate in the city.
Mr. Jain requested the Centre to increase the number of ICU beds at AIIMS here and other Central Hospitals to augment the present capacity, which he said has come under strain.
Speaking at the meeting, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said effective contact tracing is achieved not only by tracing a large number of contacts but also by completing the exercise within the first 72 hours. He also advised that the Delhi administration should look at shifting patients — requiring critical care — to the Defence Medical Hospital Facility in Dhaula Kuan that has provision for 125 ICU beds.
Dr. Vardhan said the recovery rate of India is currently more than 92% while that of Delhi is 89%. Against a national case fatality rate of 1.49%, Delhi continues to have a fatality rate of 1.71%.
Testing in Delhi
He added that Delhi continues to have a highly skewed Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) to real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) ratio. “
“While 77% of the tests are RAT based, RT-PCR comprises only 23% of total tests,” he said, noting that false-negative results might give way to complacency among the COVID-19 infected patients. “In this case, there should be mandatory testing of all RAT negative persons if they develop ILI/SARI symptoms afterward,” said the Minister.
The Union Health Minister also detailed the role of scientists for repurposing drugs for use in COVID-19 and the formation of bio-repository of such drug candidates.
He urged the officers to instil COVID-19 appropriate behaviour among the masses and blunt the momentum of the infectious disease by the end of the year so that it loses its potency. Mr. Baijal noted that Delhi administration has been cautioned by experts about possible surges because of ongoing festive season and facilitation of inter-State transport. He expressed hope that the IEC campaigns would be successful in changing public behaviour towards COVID-19. He also informed that the administration is working to inculcate changes in Standard Operating Procedures for more efficient containment of the disease spread.
The Delhi government said it is committed to working together with all agencies, including the Centre, in effectively managing the COVID-19 situation. “Delhi is a mega-city and when compared to other cities. Delhi’s ratio of RAT to RT-PCR tests stands at 77% primarily because it has adopted an aggressive testing strategy and is testing more than any city or State in India, and in fact, among the highest in the world. We stand committed to increasing our capacity to conduct more tests,” read a release by the government.
