The railways were in the process of equipping coaches with 800 beds for COVID-19 patients at the Shakur Basti railway station in Delhi, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Wednesday.
As many as 45 doctors and 160 paramedics of the paramilitary forces have arrived in Delhi for COVID-19 duties .
The MHA said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was going to add 250 additional ICU beds to the existing 250 ones, besides creating 35 BIPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) beds in the next 3 to 4 days at its COVID-19 hospital near the Delhi airport.
Decisions taken at meeting
The actions come in the wake of 12 decisions taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on November 15.
Delhi has witnessed a surge in COVID-19 cases since October 28, when the daily rise breached the 5,000-mark for the first time and crossed the 8,000-mark on November 11.
“Forty-five doctors and 160 para-medics from paramilitary forces have arrived in Delhi for deployment at DRDO hospital near Delhi airport and at a COVID care centre at Chhatarpur..Remaining doctors and medics will reach Delhi in the next few days,” the MHA said in a tweet.
It had constituted 10 multi-disciplinary teams to visit more than 100 private hospitals for assessing the bed utilisation and testing capacity and identifying extra ICU beds. Visits by the teams were on.
“The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60,000 tests by the end of November. Testing capacity has already been enhanced by 10,000 tests per day on November 17,” the MHA said.
Home survey
Planning for a house to house survey was in the advanced stage. It was expected to begin by the end of the week and completed by November 25.
“Bharat Electronics Limited has dispatched 250 ventilators from Bengaluru and they are expected to reach Delhi by the end of the week. The Union Health Ministry has delivered 35 BIPAP machines to the DRDO-COVID facility near the Delhi airport,” it stated.
To bring testing closer to people, the ICMR would help the Delhi government in deploying 10 mobile laboratories with a total capacity of 20,000 tests in a phased manner beginning next week, it added.
