Dr. Harsh Vardhan reviews status and preparations for COVID-19 management with Lt. Governor & Health Minister of Delhi

As all districts of UT of Delhi are now affected by COVID-19, Dr Harsh Vardhan pointed out that “the rising cases, high positivity rates and low testing levels in many districts are worrisome”. While the average testing/million population in Delhi was 2018, some districts such as north east (517 tests/million population) and South east (506 tests/million population) were far below. While the UT’s positivity rate of last week was 25.7%, several districts reported figures above 38%, he said. The high rate of infection in the health care workers was also serious issue, he added. It indicates poor infection prevention control practices in health care settings and needs to be attended to on priority, he pointed out.

He underscored the immediate need and importance of scaling up of testing with health infrastructure enhancements along with better clinical management of the COVID-19 cases for effective case management and reduction of fatality rate.
He also pointed that bed availability was to be rapidly increased in view of current rapid rise of cases along with avoiding unnecessary delay in admission of cases.