Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announces 5-point action plan to contain coronavirus in Delhi

Delhi government on Tuesday unveiled a '5-T' mantra to fight COVID-19 where it will go for aggressive testing, tracing people who got in touch with positive patients, track the movement of those in quarantine and ramping up medical facilities to treat 30,000 patients at a time.

The plans also include taking over 12,000 hotel rooms and setting10,000 beds in religious institutions in case of a surge in patients and intensive tracing of those kept in quarantine using cellular triangulation.

Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

The five 'Ts' -- testing, tracing, treatment, teamwork and tracking and monitoring -- will ensure that no stone is left unturned to protect people of the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. "We have to be three steps ahead of COVID-19, or else we will not be able to contain it. All the nations who have managed to be a step ahead of coronavirus have managed to control it," he said.

Drawing inspiration from South Korea where large-scale testing and containment measures helped in checking the spread of the virus, he said Delhi will be going to "aggressively test to identify, treat, trace, quarantine and seal (areas)".

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With more testing kits arriving in the capital in the coming days, the Delhi government plans to conduct around one lakh random rapid tests from Friday in localities where more cases are reported to identify and self quarantine those who came in contact with positive cases. Already, tests for another 50,000 have been ordered.

After positive cases and hotspots are identified, authorities will follow it with a "tracing" exercise where people who came in contact with the patients are identified through cell phone triangulation, a process to identify the localities where the patient travelled during this period. Those persons who came in contact with a positive case would be asked to be in home quarantine, and they will be on a 24X7 surveillance to ensure that they do not step out.

Already, Delhi Police is tracking over phones of 27,702 people in home quarantine. The authorities are also providing the phone numbers of around 2,000 members of Tablighi Jamaat, whose gathering in mid-March has resulted in a surge in numbers of COVID-19 cases, to track whether they had gone out of the campus.

"Such localities where Tablighi Jamaat members went will be sealed. On the basis of tracing, we will put people in home quarantine, seal the area and monitor the movement of those in quarantine," Kejriwal said.

On treatment, he said the government already earmarked 2,950 beds in government hospitals and private hospitals and a plan is already in hand to deal with a situation where Delhi has 30,000 active patients at a time. As per the plan for 30,000 patients, government and private hospitals will provide for 8,000 beds while a strategy has been drawn to take over 12,000 hotel rooms besides setting up 10,000 beds in banquet halls and facilities run by religious institutions.

"Those with liver, heart and respiratory ailments, diabetes and cancer and those above 50 years will be sent to hospitals and others in hotel rooms and banquet halls. All medical facilities will be available in these hotels and religious institutions. The take over of these facilities will be done in a phased manner if the situation arises," Kejriwal said.

Plans are also drawn up for facilities like ventilators, Intensive Care Unit beds and oxygen kits in case of a surge in case of patients. As per the strategy drawn, Delhi would need 400 ventilators and 1,200 oxygen kits if the number raises to 30,000.

Kejriwal, who took up the responsibility of "tracking and monitoring" the preparedness, also emphasised on team work, saying it would be foolish to think that one can defeat Covid-19 alone. "All governments and agencies should work together. There should be coordination between states also," he said.