Haryana to increase testing in five worst-hit NCR districts: Dushyant Chautala

Chautala said to deal with coronavirus in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Union government and the governments of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are now working together and its impact is visible the past a few days with "decreasing" infections. He said the Haryana government has also decided to start the convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The Haryana government will increase testing, hospital beds and ventilators to tackle coronavirus in five of its NCR districts that have been worst-hit by the pandemic, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said on Thursday. A special attention will be paid to the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat, Rohtak and Jhajjar, Chautala told reporters after a meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

The arrangements in these districts will be made on a par with Delhi, Chautala said after the video conference with the Union home minister. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also attended the meeting. State Health Minister Anil Vij also joined the meeting through a video link.

Chautala said an emphasis was given on increasing testing and the number of ICU beds in the districts. These five Haryana districts account for nearly 12,000 of the total 15,509 cases and 209 of the 251 fatalities.

Gurgaon alone has reported 5,569 cases and 96 fatalities while Faridabad has 4,028 infections with 83 deaths. Chautala said to deal with coronavirus in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Union government and the governments of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are now working together and its impact is visible the past a few days with "decreasing" infections.

He said the Haryana government has also decided to start the convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. He said due to efforts of the state government, the rate of recovery has been steadily increasing.

In the meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah stressed on carrying out more COVID-19 tests by using rapid antigen kits and suggested that the focus should be on reducing mortality rate by ensuring early hospitalisation. A Haryana government release said Shah directed for adopting a common strategy for the containment of COVID-19 infection in the National Capital Region. According to the release, Khattar said the state government has so far distributed 1,500 pulse oximeters to asymptomatic patients in the NCR districts of the state for the regular monitoring of oxygen levels during home isolation.

Orders for additional 1,000 oximeters have also been placed to carry out door-to-door monitoring of oxygen levels of such patients so that people having low oxygen levels could be admitted to hospitals for treatment, he said. While assuring that the suggestions that emerged during the meeting will be followed by the state government, the chief minister said health projections should be revised from time to time according to the actual situation so as to prevent panic among people.

He said as per the projections, the state government has sufficient number of isolation and ICU beds available in hospitals. He said there are 1,061 ICU beds in NCR districts whereas the number of critical patients is only 61. Apart from this, the target of testing has also been increased from 4,000 per day to 5,000 a day, he said.

The CM said at present, 3,500 rapid tests are being done in Gurgaon and the same will be started soon in other adjoining districts also. An arrangement of 15,900 isolation beds has been made in both government and private hospitals in the state, he added. The chief minister said an experiment has been started in Gurgaon under which 17 “aggressive containment zones” have been set up for conducting door-to-door surveys and to take the symptomatic patients to hospitals for treatment.