The Delhi government is training doctors working at Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics on handling suspected COVID-19 cases. Aimed at strengthening the healthcare set-up at primary level, doctors at the clinics have been advised to report all suspected cases to designated hospitals. So far, 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported from Delhi. To this end, chief district medical officers (CDMOs) of the 11 districts are reaching out to doctors at the clinics to explain the guidelines that have to be followed while screening a patient. “This is an initiative by the CDMOs in the city. They are calling doctors and sending out WhatsApp messages about dos and dont’s to be followed while screening any patient. If any patient shows symptoms, then he/she and their family members are being counselled. We are providing awareness material to mohalla clinic doctors,” said Dr. Nimmi Rastogi, health coordinator, Dialogue & Development Commission (DDC). There are approximately 460 mohalla clinics operational in the city, which cater to 160-200 patients a day on average. Each mohalla clinic has a doctor and three multi-tasking workers. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has authorised six state hospitals to collect samples of suspected COVID-10 patients. These are Lok Nayak. Guru Tegh Bahadur, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, Janakpuri Super Specialty, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospitals. “We are also getting private labs on board to provide the testing facility. Roche Diagnostics is the first private lab to get approval for coronavirus testing. Three other labs - BioMérieux, Trivitron Healthcare & Mylab Discovery Solutions — are also in touch,” added Dr Rastogi. Until now, samples were being sent to AIIMS and National Centre for Disease Control.
