NEW DELHI: Though the daily cases of coronavirus have started to come down in the national capital, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government is leaving no stones unturned to ensure that the positive cases are detected at the earliest followed by isolation and treatment.
The government, for the purpose, has increased its testing capacity. On Friday, the city recorded the highest single-day testing so far — 85,003 of which around 40,000 samples were collected based on the RT-PCR process while 44,000 tests were of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT).
Delhi Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Satyendar Jain said that the positivity rate has become less than 5 per cent as compared to the surge since November 7 which is a sign of relief as it points to perpetual declining of the effect of the pandemic in Delhi.
“More than 65% beds and more than 40% ICU beds remain vacant. If this rate of positivity stays for a consecutive 5 days, it will be indicative of the fact that Delhi has combated the virus,” Jain said.
Thanking everyone involved, he said that due to the aggressive testing and contract tracing, Delhi has been able to achieve this, he added.
The directorate of family welfare of the government has commenced an exercise for enrolment of healthcare workers of hospitals, nursing homes, and other health facilities for administering Covid vaccine under first phase.
“We have the infrastructure to roll out the vaccine to the entire population of Delhi in a few weeks. We have facilities like Mohalla Clinics, poly clinics dispensaries to facilitate application of the vaccine. This vaccine is stored in thermocol boxes with dry ice. So storage if this vaccine will not be a problem,” Jain stated.
The government already has data of several hospitals and nursing homes but has asked all registered and unregistered facilities to enroll on priority by December 5, said a government official.
The government issued a public notice inviting all medical institutions including small and unregistered clinics to register themselves and submit data of their healthcare workers including supporting, staff and people employed in auxiliary departments like diagnostic laboratories or radiology centres.