Delhi: 7,000-8,000 teams to do house-to-house survey in Covid containment zones, says govt

Amid the surge in novel coronavirus cases in Delhi, the central government on Tuesday said that there will be house to house survey done in containment zones and other vulnerable zones to check the spread of the virus in the national capital.

In a press briefing today, NITI Aayog's VK Paul added that a total 7,000-8,000 teams will be put on this exercise across Delhi.

Paul also added that 10 mobile test labs will be deployed in Delhi along with 10 teams to reach out to private hospitals there to monitor COVID related issues.

"If active cases rise in Delhi, home monitoring facility to be increased to 40,000," he added.

Moreover, the Delhi government is working on revising its containment strategy and is likely to conduct a survey in the high-coronavirus incidence areas of the city, reported news agency PTI earlier.

Moreover, the union health ministry said that ICU bed capacity in Delhi hospitals will be increased to over 6,000 in next 3-4 days from existing 3,523 beds keeping in view the covid situation in the national capital.

Paul also informed that 537 new ICU beds to be added at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel COVID Hospital.

Increase in beds, doubling testing capacity, right mix of RT-PCR and RAT among actions to be taken for rise of COVID cases in Delhi, the ministry added.

Recently, Centre announced a slew of steps including making available 300 additional ICU beds, doubling the number of daily RTPCR tests and a house-to-house survey after a high-level meeting was convened between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other dignitaries including Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

Shah also said that doctors and paramedics of paramilitary forces will be flown in to be deployed in the national capital to deal with the shortage of manpower.

Delhi has witnessed a spurt in novel coronavirus cases since October 28 when the daily rise breached the 5,000-mark for the first time and it crossed the 8,000-mark on Wednesday.

On Thursday, 104 coronavirus-related deaths, the highest in over five months, were recorded in the city.

On Monday, Delhi recorded 3,797 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4.89 lakh, even as 99 new fatalities pushed the toll to 7,713.

These relatively low number of fresh cases came out of the 29,871 tests conducted on Sunday.