From now on, District Magistrates (DMs) in Delhi will be leading the fight against COVID-19. According to an order by the Chief Secretary Vijay Dev who also heads Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), all the heads of Delhi government hospitals, Deputy Commissioners of the civic bodies, and the DCPs who are in charge of police districts, will work under the command of DMs to effectively deal with the pandemic.
Chief Secretary’s order read, “The DM is responsible for the overall management of COVID-19 pandemic… and shall implement all the guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), orders and directions of the DDMA, Ministry of Home Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority.”
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The move came following the discussion, on June 14, of Amit Shah, Union Home Minister with Anil Baijal, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi.
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Moreover, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), a high-level expert committee submitted a report on testing rates for Coronavirus infection and it has been decided to fix the rate at Rs 2,400.
Also, post directions from Shah, health surveys have been started to expedite contact mapping in Delhi’ containment zones. According to a survey conducted on June 15 and June 16, of the total population of 2,30,466 in the 242 containment zones, 1,77,692 people have been covered. The remaining will be covered by June 20.