Delhi BJP, AAP decide to fight COVID-19 together after Shah meeting; Cong slams them for case surge

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta and AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh sharing details of the meeting said testing will be increased to 18,000 per day from June 20. Singh said it was decided in the meeting that politics should be kept away in fighting the pandemic.

After a meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, Delhi's ruling AAP and the main opposition BJP said COVID-19 needs to be fought keeping political differences aside, while the Congress hit out at the Centre and the Delhi government for pandemic surge in the city. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta and AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh sharing details of the meeting said testing will be increased to 18,000 per day from June 20.

Singh said it was decided in the meeting that politics should be kept away in fighting the pandemic. He said increasing number of hospital beds for coronavirus patients was also discussed in the meeting. He further said that there was also a discussion on increasing the number of beds by 1,900 in the state government hospitals, by 2,000 in the central government hospitals, by 1,100 beds in private hospitals. "Around 8,000 beds will be increased through railway coaches, and 4,000 beds will be increased through hotels. From 20 June, around 18,000 testing will be done daily. There was also a discussion on a test that shall be conducted in just Rs 450, in which people will get their reports in 15 minutes," Singh said. He further said the meeting was quite meaningful and I believe that if "we continue to work in this direction, we will receive positive results in the coming days".

Gupta said a central team will give a report on capping private hospital charges after which action will be taken to control arbitrary rates charged by them. The party also demanded halving the lab test charges for COVID-19, he said. "In this hour of crisis, we should fight against the pandemic together instead of trading charges," the Delhi BJP chief said after the meeting.

Gupta said it was informed in the meeting that an intensive mapping and contact-tracing exercise will be undertaken in containment zones. The equipment for treatment of COVID-19 patients like oxygen cylinder, ventilator and pulse oximeter will be provided by the Centre to Delhi and by the month-end 37,000 beds will be arranged for patients in Delhi. Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said he raised the issue of surging numbers of COVID-19 patients in Delhi, holding the BJP-ruled Centre and the AAP government in Delhi responsible for it.

"The meeting was an exercise in mutual back-slapping by both the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party though both the central and Delhi governments have miserably failed in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. This meeting should have been held 84 days ago, on March 23 when the lockdown was implemented," he told reporters after the meeting. Kumar gave 11 suggestions, including universal testing, at the all-party meeting with Union Home Minister Shah for effective tackling of the deadly virus.

Isolation centres at school and college hostels, deploying final-year medical, nursing and pharmacy students in fighting the virus, Rs 10,000 compensation to coronavirus patients and those living in containment zones, and opening three Delhi government hospitals nearing completion, were among his other suggestions. The Delhi Congress will stage a protest across 1,000 locations in the national capital on Tuesday against the BJP and the AAP for alleged failure of their governments in tackling the pandemic in the city, he said.