Amit Shah calls meeting to review COVID-19 situation in Delhi

New Delhi, Nov 15: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has called a meeting later today at North Block to take stock of the COVID-19 situation in Delhi.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, and CM Arvind Kejriwal to be present.

The home minister will take stock of the situation arising due to the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi and how to deal with it, a home ministry official said.

The national capital recorded 7,340 COVID-19 cases in a day taking the infection tally to over 4.82 lakh on Saturday, while 96 more fatalities during the same period pushed the death toll in the city to 7,519, authorities said.

These fresh cases were detected from 49,645 tests, including 19,635 RT-PCR ones and 30,010 by rapid antigen tests, conducted the previous day. The positivity rate in the city was 14.78 per cent amid festivities and rising pollution, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

The highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases was recorded on Wednesday and 85 fatalities were recorded that day. On November 12, the number of fatalities was 104, the highest in over five months.

The National Centre for Disease Control, in a report drafted recently, had warned that Delhi needs to be prepared for about 15,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 per day taking into account the winter season-related respiratory problems, large influx of patients from outside and festive gatherings.

Of the total 16,636 beds in COVID hospitals, 7,959 are vacant, the bulletin stated, adding 227 beds in COVID care centres are occupied by people under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights.

The Delhi government has significantly ramped up testing in the past few days, with the count on several times crossing the 60,000-mark. The number of tests done per million, as on Friday was over 2.85 lakh while the total number of tests stood at over 54 lakh.