Home Minister Amit Shah to review COVID-19 situation in Delhi with L-G Anil Baijal, CM Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday

File photo

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet Delhi L-G Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday (June 14, 2020) to review COVID-19 situation in the national capital in view of a record rise in cases of coronavirus infection here.

According to reports, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to hold a meeting with Delhi L-G Anil Baijal, CM Arvind Kejriwal and members of SDMA to review the situation in the capital regarding COVID-19 management in the national capital.

The meeting will take place at 11 am, the Office of the Home Minister said.

Home Minister, Shri @AmitShah and Health Minister, @drharshvardhan to hold meeting with @LtGovDelhi, CM Delhi & members of SDMA to review situation in the capital regarding COVID-19 tomorrow, 14th June at 11 am.

Director AIIMS and other senior officers would also be present.

— गृहमंत्री कार्यालय, HMO India (@HMOIndia) June 13, 2020

Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and other senior officers would also be present in the meeting called by the Home Minister tomorrow.

The meeting comes a day after Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal constituted a high-level advisory committee of experts to suggest effective measures to deal with rising coronavirus cases in the national capital. 

The advisory committee of experts has been constituted under section 17 of DDMA Act to advise the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on various aspects of COVID-19 management.

The decision to set up the panel was taken days after Delhi Health Department projected a steep surge in COVID-19 cases and predicted that they could breach the 1,00,000-mark this month-end and touch 5 lakh by July-end.

The six-member committee comprises Krishna Vatsa (Member) NDMA, Kamal Kishore (Member) NDMA, Prof Balram Bhargava DG-ICMR, Dr Randeep Guleria  Director AIIMS, Dr Ravindran Addl DDG (DGHS) and Dr Surjit Kumar Singh (Director) NCDC.

The committee is expected to give its suggestions on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic over the next few weeks and months.

Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal is the chairman of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

With 34,867 COVID-19 cases so far, Delhi is in dire straits with the city recording 1,877 cases on Thursday, the highest single-day spike yet.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said that it's a "war-like situation" and the city government will try every means available to get more doctors and medical staff to meet the ever-increasing requirement.

Kejriwal had recently claimed that Delhi would need 1.5 lakh beds by July 31 if people from other states start coming to the national capital for treatment.

Another panel constituted by the Lieutenant Governor has suggested using Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium and JLN Stadium as makeshift COVID-19 facility to deal with the surge in the number of cases.

The panel has also suggested using Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium and Dhyanchand National Stadium for the purpose.