Over four per cent of health workers in Delhi including 33 doctors have become affected due to coronavirus said Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and added that this situation as “worrying”.
Harsh Vardhan’s comments reported by a news agency were made on Tuesday when the minister held a review meeting via video conference with top officials of the state, including the lieutenant governor (LG), health minister, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioners and DCPs of all districts of the national capital along with surveillance officers and heads of government hospitals.
“13 paramedics, 26 nurses, 24 field workers, 33 doctors are COVID19 affected. This is worrying,” Harsh Vardhan is reported to have said.
A dashboard of medical care professionals and volunteers deployed across the country prepared by the health ministry as part of the containment efforts says Delhi has nearly 18,000 MBBS doctors involved in fighting coronavirus, 2530 MBBS students, 43,865 Nurses, 12,011 Dentists, 11,213 Ayush workers, 350 lab volunteers, 5809 ex-Servicemen, 10,628 NYKS volunteers, 4478 trained health professionals among other categories of manpower.
The health ministry had recently written to all states asking them to take utmost care of their health care professionals while listing out measures taken for their safety.
It recommended that states used Hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis of Sars-Cov-2 infection for high risk population including all asymptomatic health care workers who were involved in the care of suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases. It also states that nearly 5.11 lakh additional PPEs (Personal Protection Equipment) had been supplied by the Centre to the states to augment the existing stock of 2.75 lakhs of PPE available with the states.
Delhi has 4039 cases of coronavirus as per the latest figures released by the ministry of health and nearly 100 containment zones—areas with positive cases that present a threat of further transmissions. Dr Harsh Vardhan said that this number should come down before adding that the existing periphery of the containment zones could be increased to fight the disease better.
“According to experts, we need to increase the periphery of sealed areas in Delhi to fight Covid-19 better,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said while talking about the containment efforts in Delhi.
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