Those with oxygen saturation level below 94% will have to be examined by a doctor. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)In an effort to reduce Covid-19 mortalities, the Delhi government has asked all Covid testing centres to mandatorily check oxygen saturation levels of everyone who gets tested. Those having an oxygen saturation level below 94% will have to be mandatorily examined by a doctor.
On Tuesday, 83 fatalities were recorded — the highest in over five months — taking the death toll to 7,143. For over four days now, Delhi has been recording over 70 fatalities a day — a total of 310 deaths were reported in these days alone.
The order, issued by Special Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) Udit Prakash Rai, directs all centres to implement the guidelines with immediate effect. The directives were issued after several patients visiting hospitals were found to have progressed to either moderate or severe categories of Covid-19.
“Early identification of not only those with detectable infection (via testing) but also those at increased risk of developing complications or progressing to moderate or severe disease shall help us reduce the Covid-19 associated complications and deaths,” the order stated.
As per the order, oxygen level has to be compulsorily checked and recorded on the OPD slip of every patient visiting Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) and RT-PCR centres.
Health Minister Satyendar Jain, in a tweet on Tuesday, also shared a copy of the order dated November 9.
“Prompt and appropriate treatment is the key to save lives and combat Covid-19 complications and deaths. All RAT and RT-PCR centres are hereby directed to ensure oxygen saturation. Patients with less than 94% oxygen saturation to mandatorily undergo a medical examination,” he tweeted.
The city Tuesday recorded a single-day new high of 7,830 new cases, taking the total number of infections to 4,51,382. The daily positivity reached 13.26% after 59,035 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. The fatality rate based on the last 10 days data has been recorded at 0.98%.