Amit Shah, Arvind Kejriwal to meet today on COVID-19

New Delhi, June 13: Amid spike in cases, Home Minister Amit Shah will meet with Delhi Chief Minister and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal tomorrow to review the covid-19 situation in the state.

The meeting comes in the wake of rising coronavirus cases in Delhi, which has reported nearly 40,000 COVID-19 cases and 1,214 deaths so far.

"Home Minister, Shri @AmitShah and Health Minister, @drharshvardhan to hold meeting with @LtGovDelhi, CM Delhi & members of SDMA to review situation in the capital regarding COVID-19 tomorrow, 14th June at 11 am. Director AIIMS and other senior officers would also be present," Shah's office tweeted.

The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi is the third highest in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

There has been criticism from different quarters over the handling of COVID-19 cases in the capital with complaints of non-availability of beds in hospitals for patients and difficulty in getting the tests done in laboratories.

The Supreme Court on Friday lashed out at the city government, terming as "horrific" the state of affairs in Delhi hospitals with bodies being stacked next to COVID-19 patients.

After the SC's observation, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government said it accepts with utmost respect and sincerity the apex court's remarks and pointed out that it was trying its best to set up better infrastructure and provide quality healthcare to all COVID-19 patients in the city.

Baijal has also formed a six-member panel to formulate a COVID management plan and suggest ways to ramp up medical infrastructure in the capital.

This comes close on the heels of Baijal's recent assertions on hospital beds and testing, and overturning of two Delhi government orders -- reserving hospital beds only for residents of Delhi and testing of only symptomatic patients.

The members on Baijal's advisory committee are DG ICMR Professor Balram Bhargava, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria, National Disaster Management Authority members Krishna Vatsa, Kamal Kishore and others.

India surpassed the three lakh-mark in coronavirus cases on Saturday with the worst daily spike of 11,458 infections, while the death toll too climbed to 8,884 with 386 new fatalities, the Union health ministry said.

It has now become the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic with a case load of 3,08,993, according to coronavirus statistics website Worldometer.

However, the health ministry has said that the doubling time of coronavirus cases has improved to 17.4 days from 15.4 days. And its data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed active cases at 1,45,779 and those who have recovered at 1,54,329; one patient has migrated.

"Thus, around 49.9 per cent patients have recovered so far," a ministry official said.