Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Saturday said that all the states must replicate “Delhi’s model” to combat the coronavirus crisis, PTI reported. Delhi’s daily count of cases has significantly decreased over the past few days and the government claims that the recovery is constantly improving.
Reddy, who is the minister of state for home affairs, made the remark during his visit to the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Gachibowli. “I am requesting the state [Telangana] government to focus on testing, tracing and treatment,” Reddy was quoted as saying by the news agency.
“The more number of the tests, the faster the containment of the disease,” he added. “You know, Delhi as a union territory I am personally monitoring. There is 84% recovery rate in Delhi. All the states should emulate the Delhi model.”
According to the Delhi government’s health bulletin on Friday, the Capital’s coronavirus recovery rate is now over 89%. The Capital reported 1,195 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its overall count past 1.35 lakh. Of the total cases, only 10,705 are active. More than 1.2 lakh patients have recovered.
Earlier this week, however, the Delhi High Court had raised questions on the Capital’s decreasing daily count of cases and pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party government for choosing Rapid Antigen Testing, or RAT, which has a high rate of false negative results, over the RT-PCR or Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction method.
On Saturday, the second round of serological survey begun in Delhi. The five-day survey will cover all districts. Serological surveys reveal how many people may have been infected with the novel coronavirus in an area but they do not show how many people are immune to the virus. It still isn’t clear how long antibodies last in infected persons and how many antibodies are needed to protect a person from reinfection. The Capital has also significantly expanded coronavirus testing.
Telangana, meanwhile, reported a record 1,986 new cases on Friday, taking its overall count to 62,703. The state’s toll rose by 14 to 519.
India’s coronavirus count rose to 16,95,988 on Saturday morning with more than 57,000 new cases. The highly infectious disease has killed 36,511 people across the country.
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