India is ready to conduct house-to-house coronavirus screening of all 22 million residents of capital New Delhi, which has passed Mumbai to become the country’s worst-hit city.
Officials will visit each household to record each resident’s health details during the next two weeks and administer a test for the virus to those who show or report symptoms, Delhi government officials said.
Government Plan On Testing
The exercise will be completed by July 6, according to a plan issued by the Delhi government, as the city recorded more than 70,390 confirmed cases. The announcement came as India on Thursday registered another record 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105, making it the fourth worst-hit country in the world.
The federal health ministry also reported another 418 deaths, taking fatalities to 14,894. The ministry said the recovery rate was continuing to improve at 56 per cent.
In New Delhi, police will be deployed to enforce physical distancing and prevent the mixing of the population inside more than 200 containment zones where large clusters of cases have been confirmed. CCTV or drone monitoring will also be used.
Police will have to ensure strict perimeter control and “absolute restriction of outward and inward movement of the population,” the city government said.
Delhi’s city government has projected that cases in the capital area alone could expand to more than half a million by late July, and is considering taking over luxury hotels and stadiums to convert into field hospitals.
Armed forces personnel are providing medical care and attention to coronavirus patients kept in railway coaches that have been turned into medical wards at nine locations in the capital.
Health Ministry on COVID 19 Tests
The health ministry said it has ramped up testing to more than 200,000 people per day across the country, raising the total number of samples tested so far to nearly 7.3 million.
