Now, Delhi L-G forms panel to address Covid crisis

The new panel was also announced on a day the Supreme Court pulled up the Delhi government over its management of the situation. The members on Baijal’s “advisory committee” are DG ICMR Professor Balram Bhargava; AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria; National Disaster Management Authority members Krishna Vatsa, Kamal Kishore; Dr Ravindran of DGHS; and Dr Surjit Kumar Singh, Director, NCDC.

“The expert committee will give their opinion on various challenges being faced in Delhi in prevention of spread of Covid-19 and measures to ramp up medical infrastructure. The committee would also provide examples from global and national best practices,” the L-G House said in a statement.

On June 8, Baijal had overturned the Delhi government’s decisions to limit the scope of testing, and to reserve hospital beds in state government-run and private facilities only for residents of the city.

Besides announcing the panel, Baijal also reviewed the city’s containment zone strategy during the day with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, Chief Secretary Vijay Dev and Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar, among others, with some, like the CM, joining through video conference.

Currently, there are 242 containment zones in Delhi. The district-wise trend of Covid-19 was also discussed in the meeting. Baijal told officials that ramping up bed capacity and medical resources should be the government’s priority so that surge in cases “doesn’t overwhelm the healthcare system”.