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Delhi

North MCD to set up four more dengue test centres

With areas under its jurisdiction registering a high number of dengue cases, North MCD on Wednesday decided to set up four centres for testing patients for the deadly disease. The decision to start four more dengue test centres in four different zones of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation was taken during a meeting of its standing committee.

Chairman of the standing committee, Mohan Bhardwaj, directed the MCD Commissioner to set up the dengue test centres to supplement the test facilities at Kasturba and Hindu Rao hospitals within the North MCD area.

The dengue tests were available at the two hospitals through ELISA test kit which were supplied by the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

Availability of the prescribed test kits poses a major challenge vis-a-vis the opening of new test centres, said Dr AK Seth, Health Director of North MCD. But the chairman, however, directed MCD Commissioner P K Gupta to procure the test kits from private sources.

The standing committee also decided to provide health kits, including face masks and gloves to the staff involved in extensive fumigation exercise to check the breeding of dengue mosquitoes. 

Committee member Rajesh Bhatia raised the issue saying that chemicals used for fumigation were <g data-gr-id="44">harmful for</g> the staff who were exposed to it for long hours.

Meanwhile, committee member and leader of opposition Mukesh Goel slammed the mayor of North MCD and accused him of “indulging in drama” instead of focusing on serious efforts to check the dengue menace. 

Toll touches 28, officials say actual figure could be higher
As the dengue toll reached 28, officials on Wednesday said the figure could be higher as reporting from private hospitals about such deaths was “irregular and sluggish”. Two more patients — eight-year-old Nazreen from Ghaziabad and 18-year-old Priyanka from Bhagya Vihar — died due to the vector-borne disease at RML Hospital on Tuesday, while Safdarjung Hospital recorded another death, that of a woman, taking the total toll to 28. While the dengue toll as per the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), which compiles the report on behalf of all civic bodies, stood at 17, a private hospital in Rohini reportedly recorded 21 deaths with almost a dozen of the deceased belonging to Delhi. “We have recorded 21 deaths this season, out of which almost a dozen belonged to Delhi as we also cater to patients from neighbouring areas like Sonepat and Panipat etc,” said a senior doctor at Jaipur Golden Hospital. 
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