Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan today visited the COVID Care Centre (CCC) at Mandoli Jail, New Delhi to review status of COVID-19 management. Keeping in view the emerging requirements for hospital preparedness, Mandoli CCC is Police Residential Complex turned dedicated COVID-19 Centre consisting of adequate isolation rooms and beds for COVID-19 patients with mild/very mild symptoms.

At the outset, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Adequate healthcare infrastructure and facilities have been set-up across the country for COVID-19 management. These have been divided into three categories viz. Dedicated COVID Hospitals (DCHs), Dedicated COVID Health Centres (DCHCs) and COVID Care Centres (CCCs) with adequate number of isolation beds, ICU beds and other facilities.” Informing about the number of such facilities, he added, “A total of 855 Dedicated COVID Hospitals have been identified across the country with 1,65,723 Beds (1,47,128 Isolation Beds + ICU Beds); 1,984 Dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,31,352 Beds (1,21,403 Isolation Beds + 9,949 ICU Beds); and, 4,362 COVID Care Centres with 3,46,856 beds. Delhi has 17 COVID Care Centres with a capacity for around 5,000 beds.”

“In last few days, I have been visiting various Dedicated COVID Hospitals such as AIIMS Trauma Centre, Delhi, LNJP, RML, Safdarjung, AIIMS Jhajjar, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, LHMC to review the preparedness of COVID-19. This time I decided to visit this Mandoli COVID Care Centre and witness the arrangements made by this center”, he said.

During the visit, Dr. Harsh Vardhan was apprised that Mandoli CCC has twelve Towers in which 575 COVID-19 patients are being taken care of. It has a capacity for 750 patients. He visited the Tower-I and interacted with the patients from Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam and enquired about their well-being and concerns. He also spoke to the Doctors and administration officials and police officials who, in turn, apprised the Minister about the facilities in the CCC. “I am happy to know that many patients who were COVID-19 positive earlier have recovered now and tested negative. Soon they will be going back to their homes to live a longer and healthy life”, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said.

While stressing upon wearing masks or face-covers, washing hands regularly and observing physical distancing, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “These habits will help us in combating COVID-19 as well as other diseases also.” “Government’s efforts have proven successful in the past to eradicate Small Pox and Polio. Together we will also fight and defeat Coronavirus”, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

He further informed that States/UTs as well as Central Institutions have been provided with around 72 lakhs N-95 masks and around 36 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Similarly informing about the actual use of the healthcare equipment by the patients, he said, “Based on the active COVID-19 confirmed cases being treated as on date, we have noticed that only 2.48% of these COVID cases have required ICU facility, only 1.94% of them have required oxygen support while mere 0.40% have required ventilator support.”

Talking about the status of testing capability and capacity in the country, he said, “We have today 343 government laboratories and 129 private laboratory chains. The testing capacity has also been ramped up in both, and as on date, around 95,000 tests can be conducted every day. Yesterday itself, we have conducted 86,368 tests. Till yesterday, we have conducted 16,09,777 tests.”

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also informed that Central teams of experts are also being sent to 10 States – Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to support and supplement the efforts being done by the States to combat COVID-19.

Talking about the status of containment of COVID-19  in the country, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Prior to lockdown, on 25th March, 2020, the doubling rate was 3.2 when measured over a period of 3 days, 3.0 when measured over a period of 7 days and 4.1 when measured over a period of 14 days. Today it stands at 12.0 over a 3-day window, 10.1 over a 7-day window and 11.0 when measured over a 14-day window. Similarly, the Fatality rate stands at 3.3% while Recovery Rate has improved to 30.7%. Clearly the situation has improved due to lockdown. This also reflects on the quality of healthcare being provided to the COVID-19 patients.” “It is also heartening to note that in 10 States/UTs, no new case has emerged in the last 24 hours - A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Goa, J&K, Ladakh, Manipur, Odisha, Mizoram, Puducherry. Moreover, there are 4 States/ UTs - Daman & Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland & Lakshadweep - that have not reported a single case till date”, he said.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that 20 countries of the world where maximum cases have been reported, have total population which is almost equal to the population of India i.e. 135 crore and they have collectively till date reported almost 84 times the number of cases in India. In case of mortality these top 20 countries have reported 200 times the number of deaths reported in India. This containment of the disease in India has been possible due to proactive, pre-emptive and graded approach taken by the Central Government in collaboration with the States/UTs.

During the visit of Dr. Harsh Vardhan to Mandoli CCC, District Magistrate, Shahdara, Shri Sanjeev Kumar, DCP, Shahdara as well as SDM, Seemapuri, Shri Pankaj Bhatnagar, who is also the Nodal Officer of Mandoli CCC, were present.

For all authentic & updated information on COVID-19 related technical issues, guidelines & advisories please regularly visit: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/.

Technical queries related to COVID-19 may be emailed at technicalquery.covid19[at]gov[dot]in and other queries on ncov2019[at]gov[dot]in .

In case of any queries on COVID-19, please call at Ministry of Health & Family Welfare helpline no. : +91-11-23978046 or 1075 (Toll-free). List of helpline numbers of States/UTs on COVID-19 is also available at https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/coronvavirushelplinenumber.pdf .

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MV