Govt may take over pvt hospitals, hotel rooms if required for quarantine
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced a five-point action plan to tackle coronavirus spread in the national Capital and said one lakh random rapid COVID-19 tests will be conducted in city’s hotspots.
While addressing a Press conference via video link, the CM said the Delhi Government will take over private hospitals and 12,000 rooms of hotels in a phased manner if coronavirus cases constantly rise and reach up to active 30,000 cases in the city. Delhi has 525 corona positive cases as on Tuesday night.
The CM said the Government has earmarked 410 beds in Max Saket (318 beds), Apollo (50 beds) and Gangaram Colemet (42 beds). He said the Government-run LNJP (1,500 beds), GB Pant (500), Rajiv Gandhi Hospital (450) have been declared COVID-19 dedicated hospitals.
“At present, there are 2,950 beds reserved for COVID-19 cases. If the number of patients crosses 3000, we will use 1500 beds at GTB hospital following which we will have arrangements for 4,500 cases,” Kejriwal said.
Thee CM said, “There is a worldwide coronavirus outbreak and we have to formulate a strategy on how to deal with the pandemic by learning from other nations. All these things have certainly taught us that we have to be there steps ahead of corona or else we will not be able to contain it. All the nations who have managed to be a step ahead of corona, have managed to control it. I have been in touch with various experts and doctors through the course of the last few days. We have formulated a five-point plan to be able to deal with the situation in Delhi.”
Elaborating on the five-point action plan, the CM said, “It includes five Ts -- testing, tracing, treatment, team-work and tracking -- and monitoring.”
Kejriwal said, “We have observed that the nations where testing was not done were not able to contain the outbreak of corona. Maximum testing enables us to know the actual stats of people affected by corona. South Korea, for instance, increased its testing capacity so that it can quarantine and treat infected people, and control further spread of the virus. Just as South Korea, we will be testing on a larger scale. We had a deficiency in the number of testing kits until now, but now we are able to increase the testing capacity. We have ordered testing for around 50,000 people, and we have also ordered rapid testing rounds for one lakh people which will begin from Friday. Through rapid testing, we will be able to identify the hotspot areas of the COVID-19 outbreak and take necessary action.”
“The second T is tracing, which involves identifying and self-quarantining people who have come in contact with an infected person in the 14-day period, through an efficient mechanism with the help of our doctors. We have also started taking the help of the police who will trace whether the people who have been advised to self-quarantine themselves have actually done it or not. For this, we have given 27,702 contact numbers to the police, through which they will be able to trace their movement. Through this, we will also be able to monitor the movements of the people who were taken out of Markaz. The places visited by these people will then be sealed based on their movements around. We will be able to quarantine, seal and monitor people based on tracing.”
Kejriwal said apart from increasing beds in the existing hospitals, 12,000 beds in hotels have been prepared and banquets and dharamshalas have also been included for setting up isolation facilities.
“We have mapped these requirements up to 30,000 active patients in Delhi, wherein we will have 8,000 hospital beds and 12,000 beds in hotels, and 10,000 patients will be placed in banquets and dharamshalas. Serious patients who are suffering from heart diseases etc, and patients above 50 years will be isolated in hospitals and the rest with minor symptoms will be kept in isolation in hotels and dharamshalas. We will need 400 ventilators and 1,200 oxygen kits for 30,000 patients. For now, the shortage of PPE kits that we were facing will be resolved, since the Union government has helped us by giving us 27,000 PPE kits,” he said.
“The 4th T is teamwork. None can work on containing corona alone. It requires teamwork and a collective effort to do that, and I am happy that all the State Governments and the Central Government are fighting together against it. All the State Governments must learn from each other, and work towards eliminating corona. We should be happy with each other’s successes. We should work together as one family. Doctors and nurses are an essential part of this family. We have to save their lives because they are our warriors. Also, I would like to appeal to the people to stay inside and maintain social distancing. I am happy that people who have resources are coming forward to help the needy. Organisations are donating food to the people, and all parties, whether opposition or not, are working together in this crisis. A few days back, I had interacted with the BJP Delhi MLAs, and I will be interacting with all MPs tomorrow to deliberate on the situation,” said Kejriwal.
“It is my responsibility to ensure that all these measures are in place and all the systems are functioning smoothly. I am tracking and monitoring all these things 24x7,” Kejriwal concluded.
