Coronavirus In Delhi / Containment Zones To Be De-notified In 14 Days

In a major relief to the people living inside the containment zones, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) on Wednesday has taken a decision to de-notifiy containment zones in 14 days instead of 28. This was a long-standing demand of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government as most areas in the city are in the containment zones ever since the pandemic broke, reported Hindustan Times.

Issuing an office memorandum to all states and union territories, the Health Ministry said that states which have containment zones with prolonged lockdowns may choose to de-notify a containment zone 14 days after the last COVID-19 patient has been discharged. The Ministry noted that the lockdown in containment zones "brings hardships to its residents" and that some states had requested to review it.

Meanwhile, Delhi has conducted over 10 lakh coronavirus tests so far, nearly half of which were done in the last 30 days, data shows.

According to a health department bulletin on Thursday, 10,13,694 tests have been conducted in the national capital so far -- accounting for 53,352 tests per million population.

The daily coronavirus figures last month touched the range of 2,000-3,000. With the situation deteriorating, Delhi reportedly ramped up testing.

According to the data, July saw 3.82 lakh rapid antigen tests. The number of rapid antigen tests being conducted on a daily basis is more than double of RT-PCR tests.

Delhi has 56 labs -- 22 government and 34 private -- which are carrying out RT-PCR tests to detect COVID-19.

The coronavirus tally in Delhi went past 1.34 lakh and the death toll from the disease climbed to 3,936 on Thursday.