Delhi readies 5-T plan to tackle Covid

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 7

The Delhi Government has come up with 5-T plan to tackle Covid-19 in the national capital. The five-point plan stands for "testing, tracing, treatment, team work and tracking and monitoring" of the patients.

Dedicated hospitals

The Delhi Government has declared LNJP and GB Pant hospitals as exclusive Covid hospitals. A total of 2,450 beds are there in the government hospitals and 450 in private hospitals for Covid patients. The plan is also ready for up to 30,000 patients — with 8,000 beds in hospitals and 12,000 in hotels, and accommodation of 10,000 patients in banquets and dharamshalas.

The government has decided to conduct one lakh tests to identify Covid hotspots in the city. The government has already ordered kits for rapid test and is in the process of procuring PPE kits.

"The first T is testing. We have observed that the nations where testing was not done, were not able to contain the outbreak of corona. Maximum testing enables us to know the actual statistics of people affected by corona. South Korea, for instance, increased its testing capacity so that it can quarantine and treat infected people, and control further spread of the virus," said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

He said the government had ordered testing kits for around 50,000 persons. The shortage of PPE kits would be overcome with the help of 27,000 PPE kits from the Central Government.

The second T is tracing, which involves identifying and self-quarantining people who have come in contact with an infected person in the 14-day period. The police will be tracking infected persons.

Explaining the third T, Kejriwal said: "The third T is treatment. We have around 3,000 beds ready for treatment. LNJP and GB Pant hospitals have been declared as primary hospitals for corona treatment with 1,500 beds and 500 beds, respectively, and no other treatments are being carried out there. Rajiv Gandhi hospital has 450 beds and has been declared as corona hospital. We would need 400 ventilators and 1,200 oxygen kits for 30,000 patients."

"The 4th T is teamwork. No one can work on containing corona alone. It requires teamwork and a collective effort to do that and I am happy that all state governments and the Centre are fighting together against it. All state governments must learn from each other and work towards eliminating corona," he said.

Kejriwal said: "The 5th T is tracking and monitoring. It is my responsibility to ensure that all these measures are in place and all the systems are functioning smoothly. I am tracking and monitoring all these things 24x7."