COVID-19 SCARE: Delhi authorities to ascertain readiness of govt hospitals TOMORROW, increase testing

New Delhi: In view of a surge in COVID-19 cases in some countries, officials will physically visit all government hospitals in Delhi and ascertain their preparedness to deal with any eventuality, authorities said on Sunday. In pursuance of the central government’s directions, a mock drill will be conducted across all city government hospitals on Tuesday. Delhi Health Secretary Amit Singla chaired a meeting with all district magistrates on Sunday morning and directed them to visit all hospitals and prepare an inventory of beds and equipment available there, a district official said. 

“From Monday onwards, we are going to physically assess the situation at the government hospitals with regard to the availability of beds, oxygen cylinders, ventilators etc. These details will be available on a Delhi government portal for public viewing from Tuesday,” another official said.

The Delhi government’s coronavirus dashboard was last updated on December 12. “Real-time data will be available on the portal from Tuesday,” the official quoted above said. An official from the northeast district said testing is likely to be ramped up soon. At present around 2,500 to 3,000 tests are being conducted in the entire city.

“Meetings are being held with resident welfare organisations and non-government organisations.They are being asked to create awareness about the emerging situation. “We are likely to launch a door-to-door drive to provide booster doses to vulnerable populations,” the official said. A northwest district official said they are asking everyone to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour — maintaining at least two-feet distance, using masks, avoiding crowded places etc.

A southeast Delhi district official said the situation doesn’t seem alarming right now, but “we are completely prepared”. “We are also going to collate bed availability data at private hospitals which had played a key role in handling the situation during previous Covid waves,” he said.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the new Omicron sub-variant BF.7 of the coronavirus that is causing a surge in cases in some countries has not been detected in Delhi so far and that his government is fully geared up to tackle any eventuality.

He had also issued instructions to send all positive cases for genome sequencing, increase precaution dose coverage and manpower in hospitals. He had directed officials to take prior approval for procurement of essential items needed and inspect machines in all hospitals. The CM had asserted that they are self-sufficient in terms of oxygen availability and storage.

During the second Covid wave last year, Delhi had grappled with oxygen shortage with hospitals sending out SOS messages over depleting supplies over social media.