The daily Covid spike in the national capital had started climbing to unprecedented levels
A 12-point plan to tackle coronavirus in Delhi was adopted at a meeting on Sunday evening between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, which includes infrastructure like extra ICU beds and oxygen cylinders and more medical staff. In a series of tweets, Mr Shah announced the measures -- one of which is also to double coronavirus testing in the city and monitoring people in home isolation.
After the meeting, Mr Kejriwal said the centre will make arrangements for 750 hospital beds will all the facilities of Intensive Care Units for Covid patients in Delhi.
Since October 20, the coronavirus cases have been on the rise in Delhi but ICU beds were not there, Mr Kejriwal told reporters. "The Centre has assured that 750 ICU beds will be made available at the DRDO center. The number of COVID-19 tests conducted daily to be increased to over 1 lakh," he added.
There is also a plan to increase the number of tests conducted from the current 60,000 a day to 1 lakh, he added.
With coronavirus cases on an upward spiral in Delhi since the beginning of November, there has been an acute shortage of ICU beds for Covid patients. Last week, the Delhi High Court allowed the government to have 80 per cent beds in 33 private hospitals for coronavirus patients.
The daily Covid spike in the national capital had started climbing to unprecedented levels 12 days ago.
On November 3, the city had logged 6,725 cases after a few weeks of low numbers. Three days later, it crossed the 7,000 mark. On November 11, the city recorded 8,593 new cases, an all-time high.