- Union Home Secretary held a meeting to discuss feasible measures to control the surge if Covid cases
- Delhi Govt working towards increase Covid testing, enhance medical facilities, and regulating Metro travel
- Samples to increase testing in restaurants and markets to reduce community transmission
THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: On November 2, a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was held to discuss and deliberate on the current COVID-19 situation. Addressing the spurt in Covid cases, the Delhi government is considering the recommendation of collecting samples from places where a high number of cases are being reported, especially public places like restaurants and markets.
Determined to boost its COVID-19 surveillance mechanism, Delhi’s health department had already adopted the method of targeted RT-PCR testing in sensitive and critical zones. In addition to that, the government has concentrated its efforts to ramp up Covid-19 medical facilities.
Considering the deteriorating pandemic situation, the state government is taking care to ensure the availability of medical resources including beds, ICUs, and ventilators. As a preemptive measure, the government is also working towards establishing a high degree of contact tracing along with monitoring of quarantined contacts. All these efforts are being made to prevent community transmission in Delhi.
According to the Delhi government’s health department said, samples are already being collected regularly from restaurants and market places where a high number of cases are getting reported.
“Right now, no instruction has been given, but to conduct RT-PCR tests on a targeted audience, a kiosk perhaps would be made in a market place or near designated restaurants to collect samples from shoppers and visitors, at regular intervals,” a source said.
The decision has come after several health experts noted that the prescribed distance of 2m is hard to maintain at markets. Moreover, if individuals remove their mask at a distance less than the prescribed one, it is impossible to monitor each person in a public place.
Amidst the festive season in October and rising pollution level, the home ministry also issued a statement highlighting the need for regulating Metro travel in accordance with the SOPs.
“The recent surge in the number of active cases was attributed to the festival season, which has witnessed a greater movement of people, accompanied by laxity in adhering to the basic principles of safe COVID behavior,” it said.
Through its recent report, National Centre for Disease Control cautioned Delhi government about a rise in the daily average of Covid cases, estimated around 15,000.
Preparing for the predicted increase in cases owing to upcoming winter-related respiratory problems and the festive season, the Delhi government has expanded the capacity of beds at COVID-19 facilities. So far, Delhi has identified 3,416 containment zones to reduce the transmission of the virus. The district officials have also affirmed that they are dedicatedly carrying out intensive testing and enforcement drives to combat COVID-19.
Source: Financial Express