Leaving nothing to chance, Delhi sets out to ramp up Covid infra

NEW DELHI: Amid a resurgence in Covid-19 cases globally, Delhi government’s health department has asked district officials to conduct an inspection of hospitals for their preparedness to meet any emergency-like situation.

At a meeting chaired by state health secretary Amit Singla and attended by district collectors and magistrates, officials were instructed to physically visit all government hospitals as well as the private ones that were earlier marked to cater to Covid patients.
In pursuance of the central government’s directions, a mock drill will be conducted at all city government hospitals on Tuesday to check for their readiness. “The meeting was held to check the preparations for the scheduled mock drill on Tuesday. We have also been asked to check the existing facilities and compile an inventory of beds and equipment available at both government and private hospitals,” a senior official from North West district told TOI.
The district authorities have been directed to upload all details on the Corona dashboard. “After the inspection on Monday, details of oxygenated beds and manpower availability will be uploaded on an excel sheet. Private hospitals that had previously volunteered for Covid management will also be contacted,” a senior official from North East district said.
The Delhi government’s Corona dashboard was last updated on December 12.
Officials have, however, reiterated that there is no cause for concern with the daily tally of cases in Delhi still in single digits and anywhere between 2,500 and 3,000 samples being collected every day. While the government has not yet given instructions to increase the daily testing, the health department has directed officials to keep a close eye on patients with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI).
“Officials have been asked to do testing of symptomatic patients and closely monitor SARI patients. The testing will continue in the format of 75% RAT and 25% RT-PCR,” another official said.
A South East Delhi district official said the situation didn’t seem alarming right now, but they were completely prepared to tackle a rise in the cases. “We are also going to collate data on bed availability at private hospitals that had played a key role in handling the situation during the previous waves,” he said.
Last week, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the new Omicron sub-variant BF.7, which was causing a surge in cases in many countries, had not been detected in Delhi so far and that his government was fully geared up to tackle any eventuality. Following instructions from the Centre, the state is keeping a close tab on all positive cases and sending them for genome sequencing.