NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has decided to conduct large-scale testing for coronavirus, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday.Addressing a digital press conference, the CM said that the AAP government has ordered 1 lakh testing kits for increasing its testing capacity. “Our testing capacity around March 25 was 100 to 125 people per day, which increased to 500 people per day after April 1. We are now reaching a capacity of around 1,000 tests per day. The one lakh testing kits are expected to be procured by Friday.”
Kejriwal thanked the central government for providing 27,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to Delhi, which he said is a great step towards ensuring the safety of doctors in the state. Kejriwal also stated said that the cases from Nizamuddin Markaz have increase the number of cases in Delhi. He said 25 coronavirus patients were currently in ICU and eight on ventilator support, while the remaining were stable, adding that scaling up of testing will ensure containment of the deadly disease in the national capital.
The CM also stated that the process to distribute ration among non-ration card holders will begin from Tuesday with 421 schools being turned into distribution centres to an estimated 10 lakh people. As per official figure 8.15 lakh people have registered through the online portal for ration. “Each person will receive 5 kg ration in total, 4 kg wheat and 1 kg rice.
We have arranged ration for around 10 lakh people initially, and we will procure more from the Centre if needed. I want to appeal to all MLAs, MPs, and councillors to ensure that the distribution places do not get crowded because it will defeat the purpose of social distancing.”On Sunday, the government served lunch to around 6.9 lakh people and dinner to around 6.94 lakh people in the city, the chief minister said.