121 deaths added, 10-day death rate stands at 1.83%
New Delhi: Delhi on Monday continued to add over 100 deaths from the virus as the official health bulletin showed 4,450 new COVID-10 cases emerging in the last 24 hours. In the same time, the city reported 121 deaths from the contagious disease, taking the toll to 8,512.
However, RT-PCR tests are fast catching up to rapid antigen tests, with almost the same number of both tests conducted in the last 24 hours. A total of 37,307 tests were conducted on Sunday, of which 18,046 were RT-PCR tests.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday launched a mobile laboratory to conduct RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 and deliver results in six hours at a consumer cost of Rs 499 per test. The mobile van came as a joint initiative of the government and SpiceHealth. The laboratory was inaugurated by the home minister, the tests would be conducted at a rate of Rs 499 and the reports will be available in six hours, an official said.
SpiceHealth, part of the aviation group SpiceJet, in a statement said the laboratory can process up to 3,000 test reports per day and it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Furthermore, the Delhi government said there were a little over 8,000 COVID-19 beds vacant in hospitals, even as it directed 90 private hospitals to reserve 60 per cent of their total bed capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients, increasing 2,644 beds. It has also ordered 42 private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of their total ICU bed capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients, thus enhancing 260 ICU beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
It has said that if non-COVID-19 patients occupy more than the quota for the hospital, then these beds would be reserved for Coronavirus patients once they are discharged.
A similar order has been issued to the private hospitals where 60 per cent non-ICU beds have been reserved for COVID-19 patients. These 90 hospitals have also been allowed by the government to temporarily increase their bed capacity by 25 per cent depending on space availability there.
In addition, BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) on Monday officially handed over three ambulances and 50 hand sanitiser-cum-thermal scanning machines to the Health Department through Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who flagged the ambulances off to GB Pant, GTB and Lal Bahadur Shastri hospitals here.
Three more ambulances will be provided by BSES Rajdhani Power Limited, another BSES power distribution company (discom), to Delhi government's Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS), said a BSES spokesperson.
