COVID-19 management in Delhi streamlined: MHA

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said that the COVID-19 management in Delhi including health surveys, testing and cap on in-patient private hospital costs, has been 'streamlined' under the directions of Home Minister Amit Shah.

"As per directions given by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a series of meetings chaired by him over the last few days in regard to Covid-19 situation in Delhi, house-to-house health survey in 242 containment zones of Delhi has been completed yesterday. A total of 2.3 lakh people were surveyed," said the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a press release.

The MHA further added that on the directions of the Union Home Minister to increase testing capacity and quick delivery of results in Delhi, testing via Rapid Antigen testing methodology was started on Thursday.

"A total of 7,040 people have been tested in 193 testing Centres. Testing will continue with increased numbers in the coming days. A total of 27,263 testing samples have been collected in Delhi from 15th to 17th June 2020 against the daily collection which varied between 4,000-4,500 earlier," the MHA added.

The MHA further said that Home Minister Amit Shah constituted a committee under Dr. VK Paul, Member, Niti Aayog to fix rates charged by private hospitals in Delhi for 60 percent beds for COVID-19 patients in various categories, therefore; isolation beds, ICUs without ventilator support & ICUs with ventilator support.

"The Committee has recommended a range from Rs 8,000-10,000 per day (including PPE and medicines), 13,000-15,000 per day (including PPE and medicines) & 15,000-18,000 per day (including PPE and medicines) for Isolation beds, ICUs without ventilators and ICUs with ventilators respectively for all private hospitals (depending on whether the private hospital is NABH accredited or not)," said the MHA.

"This is as compared to the current charges ranging from Rs 24,000-25,000 per day (excluding PPE), 34,000-43,000 per day (excluding PPE) & 44,000-54,000 per day (excluding PPE)," the MHA added.

( With inputs from ANI )