Centre asks Delhi Govt to focus on critical zones to curb Covid

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday directed the Delhi government to concentrate efforts and target RT-PCR testing in sensitive and critical zones such as restaurants, marketplaces, barber shops and salons to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission in the national capital.

It was also directed to gear up the availability of medical resources including beds, ICUs, and ventilators as a pre-emptive measure; ensure high degree of contact tracing and monitoring of quarantined contacts, so as to suppress and break the chain of transmission.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) mentioned these points in a Covid review meeting with officials of Delhi government, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) and health experts.

In the wake of the festive season and decreasing temperatures accompanied by rising pollution, a strategy to contain spread of the disease in the wake of rising number of cases in the city which has been continuously maintaining over 5,000 per day case figure for the last four days, was also discussed.

It was also decided to enhance enforcement selectively, accompanied by greater awareness creation through targeted IEC (Information, Education and Communication) campaigns; and ensuring that all cases under home isolation were monitored and shifted to hospitals well in time, before any deterioration in their medical condition.

It was also emphasised that the Metro travel should be carefully regulated, strictly in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that has been issued in this regard.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, as part of a regular process, reviewed the situation of the pandemic in Delhi.

The meeting was also attended by V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog; Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, Director General Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava, Chief Secretary and other senior officers Delhi government and Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Srivastava.

The Delhi government made a presentation on the present situation of Covid in Delhi at a time when the new cases and total active cases are going up, informing that the "administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment".

The latest surge in the number of active cases was attributed to the "festival season, which has witnessed greater movement of people, accompanied by laxity in adhering to the basic principles of safe Covid behaviour".

The hospital bed situation was reported to be comfortable with 57 per cent of the 15,789 dedicated beds being vacant. It was, however, highlighted both by Delhi government officials and Delhi Police Commissioner that there has been no letup in enforcement and awareness generation.

Concluding the meeting, the Home Secretary, while appreciating the efforts of Delhi government officials, emphasised that the "strategies for containment of spread of Covid-19 in Delhi should be strictly enforced and implemented".

Bhalla stressed the need for reaching out to the residents of Delhi to sensitise them about safe Covid behaviour through Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), mohalla and market committees, public announcement systems, message on police vehicles.

He said the situation in Delhi would be reviewed again in the coming week, along with other districts of the National Capital Region (NCR).

As many as 32,719 active cases of Covid-19 were reported in Delhi and a total of 3,47,476 patients were discharged till Sunday, according to the MoHFW data which reports the death toll in the city 6,511.