Jahnavi Sarma
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Unlock 2.0 starts from today: Lockdown will remain in containment zones, schools, cinemas to remain shut.
The COVID-19 pandemic that has the world in its grip has hit the national capital Delhi hard. Today, Delhi has 77,240 confirmed cases of which 47901 have recovered. The capital has seen 2492 deaths so far. Despite the government taking stringent measures, Delhi's rise in COVID-19 positive cases show no signs of slowing. Elsewhere in India, the situation is more or less the same but on a smaller scale as compared to Delhi. Many states are now going in for further lockdown.
Acknowledging this worrying trend, the concerned authorities in Delhi have now initiated a mammoth exercise to determine the spread of the deadly contagion. The serological survey is part of the new COVID-19 response plan. This survey will to help officials prepare a broad strategy to combat the pandemic. The exercise will be jointly taken up by the Delhi government and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) between June 27 and July 10. According to the Home Ministry spokesperson, this is as per the directives of Home Minister Amit Shah. The decision was taken after discussion on the serological survey in Delhi. Training of all the concerned survey teams was completed yesterday.
A total of 20,000 tests will be conducted across all the districts of Delhi, spanning all sections and ages, according to the official order. The deputy commissioners of the districts will effectively coordinate with survey field teams, the order said. This will enable authorities to undertake a comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 in the city and then a broad strategy can be prepared to combat the pandemic in the national capital, a ministry statement had said.
Serology (antibody) tests are largely used for surveillance among the community. They can be used on people who have already been tested positive for the virus or even those who are asymptomatic and can reveal insights on immunity against coronavirus.
Earlier, in a bid to ramp up the testing for COVID-19 aggressively, the Delhi government procured six lakh more testing kits to ensure that more and more people are screened in the days to come. With the number of cases rising on a daily basis, the Arvind Kejriwal government aims at testing as many people as they can, primarily in and around the containment zones and also do random testing of people elsewhere to check the spread of the deadly virus.
In a tweet yesterday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Delhi conducted the highest number of tests in a single day yesterday - 21,144. "We have increased testing four times. Delhi now is following a strategy of very aggressive testing and isolation," he wrote in his tweet. The government believes that the surge in cases is due to aggressive testing and there's no need to worry about the figures as the recovery rate is also shooting up considerably.
(With inputs from Agencies)