Amid case spike, Delhi ups Covid testing

For the early detection of Covid-19 infections, the Delhi government is setting up free testing camps across the Capital to ensure that anyone who is experiencing flu-like symptoms can be tracked and isolated. Government officials said over 250 temporary testing camps will be set up across the districts to ensure that the Covid spread is contained early in city.

Delhi on Monday recorded 1,011 new Covid cases and one death from the disease, according to the Delhi government’s daily health bulletin. Since Friday, the Capital has been seeing over 1,000 new cases daily.

A senior official of the Delhi government’s health department said testing has been ramped up on the directions of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on April 20.

Officials also said the government is also working on a plan to start home testing for immobile patients along the lines of the door-to-door vaccine programme. This is likely to be introduced with a small “convenience fee”, officials in the know of the matter said.

“Based on the report, the district administration will contact the patient, assess their health condition based on their age and comorbidities while also ascertaining the availability of caregivers,” said a health official.

District officials said these testing camps will be temporary in nature and will be moved to different locations based on requirement.

The health department said the government has also restarted the deployment of teams in crowded public places to randomly conduct tests.

“Increasing testing will help in the early detection and also contain the spread of the virus,” said Dr Suneela Garg, professor and member of the Lancet Commission Covid India Task Force.