L-G asks expert panel to suggest measures to ramp up health facilities

New Delhi: In view of rising Coronavirus cases in Delhi, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday asked a six-member expert panel to come up with suggestions to deal with the current COVID-19 situation and ramp up health facilities in the Capital, sources said as the city reported 3,816 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the tally to over 2.53 lakh.

Baijal held a meeting with the members of the panel among who are Indian Council of Medical Research Director-General Balram Bhargava, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria and National Centre for Disease Control Director Sujeet Kumar Singh.

The expert panel will hold another meeting in the next few days to discuss the strategy to arrest the spread of the coronavirus in the national capital and it is likely to submit its report by September 30, the sources said.

"The LG has asked the six-member expert panel to come up with suggestions on how to tackle the current COVID-19 situation in Delhi. Also, it will suggest measures to ramp up health facilities, including beds," a source said.

Before September 20, the national capital recorded over 4,000 COVID-19 cases a day for five consecutive days. On Tuesday, Delhi added 37 deaths from the virus to its toll, which consequently climbed to 5,051. In addition, the Delhi government said that 59,013 tests had been conducted in the last 24 hours, of which only 9,459 were RT-PCR tests.

And as the Delhi government prepares to challenge the Delhi High Court's order staying the ICU-bed reservation directive, the official health bulletin showed 8,753 COVID-19 beds available in the city. Active cases again rose from yesterday to 31,623 on Tuesday, of which about 18,464 patients are recovering under home isolation.

While Delhi is clocking a case fatality rate of 2 per cent its death rate over the last 10 days is hovering around less than 1 per cent. The daily positivity rate dipped marginally to 6.47 per cent on Tuesday and the Capital is currently at a cumulative positivity rate of 9.59 per cent.