Hospitals told to stay on alert; Govt to follow principle of test, trace and treat

New Delhi: Taking note of the increasing Covid cases in the Capital, the Delhi government has directed hospitals to be on alert and said that the government will increase the RTPCR testing and follow the principle of test, trace and treat, the state's health minister Satyendra Jain said on Friday as CM Arvind Kejriwal assured the city residents that there is no need to panic.

"We are keeping a close eye on rising cases of Corona. Hospital admissions are not increasing, so there is no need to panic. Nothing to worry about as of now," Kejriwal said.

The government has also installed telemetry devices in oxygen tanks to do real-time monitoring. It will help in supplying oxygen as per the

requirements in case of an emergency and its live monitoring will be done from the war room, so that oxygen can be arranged in time.

Around 37,000 Covid beds and 10,594 COVID ICU beds have been prepared in the city. If the infection spreads, the government has planned to

increase 100 oxygen beds in every ward within two weeks. The government also has plans to prepare 65,000 beds, so that no person has to face a shortage of beds in an emergency situation.

On Friday, the Capital reported 366 fresh cases with a daily positivity rate of 3.95 per cent. And while the active cases have increased to 1,072 now, most of them are under

home isolation. That the current surge is being driven by home isolation cases is apparent in data that shows a 48 per cent rise in such cases over the last week.

Jain went on to re-affirm that the government is closely monitoring the situation and that in order to prevent the spread of Corona, contact tracing is being focused on. "Wearing a mask while leaving the house can prevent most cases. Even though cases of corona have increased in Delhi, the number of patients admitted to hospitals is still normal. Apart from this, the XE variant has not been included in the list of 'Variants of Concern' by the World Health Organization. So there is no need to panic," Jain said.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will meet on April 20 to discuss the rise in Corona cases and measures to contain the spread of the epidemic and future strategies will be discussed.

Jain appealed to the people to get vaccinated at the earliest and said that prevention is better than cure. If cases increase again, then the home isolation system will be implemented and patients with mild symptoms can get better treatment at home, he said.

The 24-hour Covid helpline number — 1031 — has now been revived once again to help the infected people during any problem.

The government has a capacity of 1363.73 MT of oxygen, including Liquid Medical Oxygen Storage (LMO), Liquid Medical Oxygen Buffer, and PSA Plant as of now. Earlier, the oxygen refilling capacity in Delhi was limited to 1,500 cylinders a day, but now the 2 cryogenic plants with a capacity of 12.5 MT will be able to fill an additional 1,400 jumbo cylinders every day.