Delhi ready to increase testing for COVID-19 infections: Health Minister Satyendar Jain

File pic: Zee News

Delhi's Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday (June 15) said that more tests for COVID-19 would be done with the cooperation of the central government. Jain said the Centre has more labs for testing coronavirus and now the Delhi government will increase this facility in all these labs with the central government's support while interacting with reporters. 

Asked about the high-level meeting on Sunday with Union Minister Amit Shah, he said the meeting was "very fruitful". "The main outcome of it was that the Centre and Delhi government will be working together to fight COVID-19 in the national capital," Jain said. Apart from this, a meeting was also held with Mayors of Delhi and they have also pledged to work together against COVID-19, he added.

According to Jain, the Delhi government's earlier order on nursing homes to increase the number of beds, looking at upcoming cases Dengue and Malaria, has been withdrawn as their services would need small nursing homes. 

On PWD's preparations ahead of the monsoon, Jain said, drains are being de-silted. On the decision to acquire properties for the installation of more beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients, Jain said trains, banquet halls, and other properties will be used as the extensions of the hospitals for the treatment of less serious patients, and more serious patients will be treated in hospitals.

"We have around 45 percent of beds available even today. More than the cases, the real question is how many beds do we need for the treatment of the patients. We are making all necessary arrangements as per the planning," the Health Minister said.

On the question of whether there is a community spread in Delhi, given in the last three days over 2,000 cases were reported every day, Jain said, "There is no need to go into technicalities."

"There is a coronavirus situation in Delhi, and this virus spreads in big cities where there are close community areas. We are taking strong action against this outbreak, and that is how we are able to treat the people infected with the virus," he added.

The Health Minister said, "Till yesterday, there were 41182 cases in Delhi, of which 2224 cases are new. Currently, there are 24032 active cases in Delhi. About 1327 people have died and out of those infected, about 5800 are in hospitals."

Notably, the Delhi government had designated 42 labs for carrying out COVID-19 tests.