COVID-19 in Delhi: Cabinet Secy reviews preparedness, calls for ramping up medical infra

In a key development, the Cabinet Secretary of Government of India Rajiv Gauba on Sunday reviewed various aspects of COVID-19 preparedness in Delhi. In a meeting held with the officials of the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD), he was made aware of recent trends in the active cases, deaths, and positivity rate and given a brief on the availability and expansion plans of medical infrastructure, the status of oxygen availability, home isolation procedures, ambulance services, and testing among others.

Taking note of the information provided by the officials, Gauba expressed the need to ramp up the medical infrastructure in Delhi, at the earliest, to cater to the increasing demand for COVID beds, ICUs, and ventilators. He also stressed the need to make available all relevant information on COVID beds and other facilities, medicine availability to the public, through dedicated websites or apps, on the basis of which people in need of medical assistance can approach the right place. "A single helpline should be created at the front end, which can be serviced through a dedicated and well-staffed call centre to provide relevant clinical information to the needy people, and should be popularized, " he said. 

On issues related to the availability of oxygen, Gauba expressed his anguish at recent instances, where people had suffered due to lack of adequate and timely availability of oxygen. He asked the Delhi Government to make all efforts to lift their allocated oxygen, using all the means at their disposal and also to ensure that the oxygen available to them is distributed rationally and in a transparent manner, so that there is no diversion or leakage. Next, he took up the issue of adequate medical and healthcare human resources and asked the Delhi Government to create flexible procedures to engage the services of retired medical professionals. He also asked for further augmentation of testing facilities and timely availability of test results.

COVID tally in Delhi

The meeting of Cabinet Secretary Gauba with the officials of the GNCTD holds relevance at a time Delhi is registering a surge in COVID-19 cases. On Saturday, the Union Territory registered 25,219 fresh COVID-19 cases, which is slightly lower than the 27,047 fresh COVID-19 cases registered on Friday. The number of deaths, however, increased and reached an all-time high with 412 deaths in a day. The cumulative positivity rate in Delhi stands at 6.82 percent while the fatality rate is at 1.41 percent.

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