NEW DELHI: Around 1,100 additional Covid beds will be made available in Delhi while daily testing capacity increased to 60,000 RT-PCR tests, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Wednesday.
It further said that 45 doctors and 160 paramedics from the paramilitary forces have arrived in Delhi for deployment on Covid duties, while Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has dispatched 250 ventilators from Bengaluru which are expected to reach Delhi by the end of this week.
The Indian Railways is making available coaches with 800 beds at the Shakur Basti railway to be used as health and isolation centres, the MHA said, adding that doctors and paramedics from paramilitary forces will man these coaches.
Side-by-side, the DRDO will double ICU beds to 500 apart from creating 35 BIPAP beds in the next three-four days at its Covid hospital near the Delhi airport.
The ministry also announced that the planning for a house-to-house survey in Delhi is in the advanced stage and the survey is expected to begin by the end of the week and completed by November 25.
These measures to ramp up Covid care facilities come in the wake of 12 decisions taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday after Delhi saw a fresh spike in cases.
Delhi has seen a steep rise in Covid cases since October 28 when the daily rise breached the 5,000-mark for the first time. It crossed the 8,000-mark on November 11.
Delhi recorded 6,396 cases on Tuesday, taking the infection tally to over 4.95 lakh while 99 fatalities pushed the toll to 7,812.
The government has linked the Covid surge to the festive season, non-compliance of safety behaviour and rising pollution in the city.
“The ministry has constituted 10 multi-disciplinary teams to visit more than 100 private hospitals in Delhi for assessing bed utilisation and testing capacity and to identify extra ICU beds. Visits by the teams are underway,” the MHA spokesperson tweeted.
Also, the ICMR and the Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by the end of November. Testing capacity has already been enhanced by 10,000 tests per day.
City records 131 deaths, highest Daily toll
Delhi recorded 7,486 fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the infection tally in the city to over five lakh, while 131 new fatalities — the highest single-day death count till date — pushed the toll to 7,943.
More manpower for labs, equipment as well
ICMR will also help in augmenting capacity by 2,000 tests of existing Delhi labs by deploying more manpower, increasing shifts and placing more equipment and through engagement with private labs.