Delhi govt doing aggresive testing, aim is not to leave untraced cases: Satyendar Jain
Aug 31, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 31 : Amid the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday that the Kejriwal government was doing "aggressive testing" and the aim was to ensure no case was left untraced.
The Minister asserted that the government had sufficient stock of COVID-19 testing kits for 10-15 days. However, the Delhi government was not procuring kits from the Centre and rather buying them from the market to meet the target of 40,000 tests per day.
Speaking to the reporters here Jain said, "The Delhi government is paying more attention to the testing. The best way to contain the virus is testing, tracing and isolation, so we are working on it."
"We have increased the time to conduct tests in government dispensaries and hospitals where the tests are free. The test will be done for five hours in the dispensaries and time has been increased in the government hospitals too," he said.
Emphasising on conducting 40,000 tests per day in Delhi, Jain said: "We have sufficient stock of COVID-19 testing kits for 10-15 days. We are not taking testing kits from the Centre but we are buying them from the market. Like the Union Health Minister had said, we also hope COVID-19 ends till Diwali," Jain said.
He further said that in terms of COVID-19 spread, Delhi stands at "comfort level" and the doubling rate of the virus is above 80 days.
On August 26, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that coronavirus testing in the national capital will be doubled from around 20,000 tests daily to 40,000 while highlighting that there has been a marginal increase in the COVID-19 cases during the last few days.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 14,793 COVID-19 active cases in Delhi while 1,54,171 people have been cured and 4,426 people have died due to the virus.
