NEW DELHI: Anticipating a surge in Covid-19 cases in the wake of the Omicron spread, the Delhi government is ramping up preparedness to tackle one lakh cases per day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Thursday after a review meeting.
Infrastructure and resources are being readied to conduct three lakh tests daily and ensure ample availability of manpower, medicines and oxygen, he said. Though Omicron is said to cause only mild symptoms, the government doesn’t want to take chances given the experience during the second wave earlier this year, when a massive spike in cases had exposed the lacunae in upgrading the healthcare facilities to deal with the Covid crisis.
While 26,000-27,000 cases a day were reported at the peak of the second wave in April, Kejriwal said adequate arrangements had been made to deal with one lakh cases daily. “We have increased our capacity of conducting Covid tests. From the current 60-70,000, we will be able to conduct 3 lakh tests per day,” he added.
Kejriwal appealed to Delhiites to stay at home instead of rushing to hospitals and assured that the home isolation module had been strengthened. Every positive patient will receive a phone call and a medical team will visit next day. “He will be given a health kit comprising instructions, oxymetre and medicines. A tele-counselling team will remain in touch with the patient for 10 days till he recovers,” the CM said.
“Our current capacity to visit homes was 1,000 cases per day but now our target is to reach out to 1 lakh homes per day. We have arranged sufficient manpower for this,” he said, adding that the hiring process will be completed in two-three days. In order to avoid any shortage, the Delhi government has stocked medicines for two months, informed the CM.
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