Delhi To Screen Every House By July 6, Rapid Testing To Be Done In Containment Zones

According to the Delhi Government, 45% of cases in the capital have been reported in the containment zones. "The revised COVID response plan will help in controlling the numbers in such areas", Delhi Govt

File Photo: PTI.

New Delhi: Amid the record-breaking surge in coronavirus cases in the national capital, the Delhi government has revised the Covid Response Plan and has decided to screen every house in the state by July 6. All houses in the containment zones will be screened by June 30, the Arvind Kejriwal government has said, under the new Covid response plan released after a series of meetings between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Chief Minister over the last week. ALSO READ|Coronavirus: India Sees Biggest Single Day Spike With Nearly 16k Fresh Cases; Total Now Tops 4.5 Lakh Delhi's Revised Covid Response Plan

• Surveillance and contact tracing to be strengthened in the containment zones that have been sealed to break the chain of transmission.
• A strict monitoring plan will be implemented at the district level as per the revised strategy.
• The COVID-19 task forces in districts - that was earlier supervised only by the district magistrates - will have the district commissioner of police, civic body officials, epidemiologists from the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi), and IT professionals to monitor Aarogya Setu app, used by the government for contact-tracing.
• In containment zones, the movement will be restricted by police by use of CCTV cameras and the government is preparing to step up efforts for "testing and isolation".
•  Rapid antigen testing will be done in such areas as per the guidelines of the ICMR.
• The state task force will be headed by the Chief Minister.
• In densely populated areas, arrangements will be made to send patients to COVID-19 care centers.
• All symptomatic and asymptomatic cases will be tested in containment zones between 5th and 10th day.
• Twenty-thousand samples will be collected as a part of a serosurvey, to estimate the prevalence of coronavirus in the national capital, which will start on Saturday (June 27). The results will be released on July 10.
• Delhi government has also taken further steps to help Covid frontline workers. Two Hotels- Ginger Hotel and Tulip Hotel - have been dedicated as Covid care centers for healthcare workers.

Delhi is the second-worst affected state in the country and the state recorded 3,947 new cases today, the highest reported by any state so far. Also Watch| India reports more than 15 thousand COVID-19 cases in a day