10 teams to check pvt COVID-19 hosps; 75 docs, 250 paramedics being flown in

New Delhi: Ten multi-disciplinary teams were constituted by the Centre on Monday to visit private hospitals in Delhi to see whether they are following COVID-19 protocols, while 75 doctors and 250 paramedics from paramilitary forces were also being sent to the national capital in the wake of the recent spike in cases, officials said.

A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah stepped in to rev up the fight against the pandemic in Delhi, several meetings were held on Monday in different wings of the government here for the smooth implementation of his 12 directives.

The doctors and paramedics of the paramilitary forces are coming from as far away as Assam and Tamil Nadu besides Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, etc. The newly formed multi-disciplinary teams have been given the task of visiting about 114 private hospitals that have been treating COVID-19 patients.

According to the terms of reference, the multi-disciplinary teams will look into whether, in the visited private hospitals, the availability of wards and ICU beds are as per the Delhi government orders. They will also check whether such availability is being displayed on a real-time basis by the hospital through LED and Corona Dashboard of Delhi governments.

Apart from the 10 teams, one additional team has been kept as a reserve.

At present, officials said, 10 percent of the beds at the Sardar Patel COVID care centre are oxygen supported and it is called the dedicated COVID healthcare centre (DCHC).

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, authorities of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the DRDO, the Delhi government and the city's municipal corporations held separate meetings for smooth implementation of the 12 directives given to fight the recent spike of COVID-19 cases in the capital, the officials said.

The arrangements are also being made for the accommodation of the paramilitary doctors and paramedics who will be arriving in Delhi in the next few days.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government's revised containment strategy is expected to be finalised and announced in a day or two, according to senior officials aware of developments. "The Delhi government is discussing on revising the containment strategy, a plan of which is likely to be announced in a day or two," the official said.

Containment zones while have decreased in size, continue to increase in numbers with the city having over 4,400 such areas as of Monday

night.