145 beds by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. If necessary, the number of beds will be raised. A north corporation official spoke about all the measures and arrangements initiated by the government to tackle the disease. He said, “We have appointed nodal officers and set up coordination committees for management of services related with cases of vector-borne diseases. All fever cases are being screened for such diseases to minimise the chances of delay in treatment. Screening units have been provided with medicines, diagnostic kits, drips and fluids in sufficient quantities”.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has established a dengue unit at Swami Dayanand Hospital, which will have 40 beds. According to an EDMC official, “Till now, 47 cases of dengue and 15 of malaria have been confirmed in our area. On Monday, 40 patients were admitted with dengue-like symptoms. After testing, 18 cases were confirmed”. Additionally, a platelet transfusion facility has been established for patients suffering low platelet counts or malfunction. The chief doctor at Swami Dayanand Hospital spoke about the Apheresis machine. He said, “We have an Apheresis machine that can help increase platelets by 20,000-30,000. This facility is far better than transfusion through random donors, which can increase chances of infection”.
Swami Dayanand, Veer Savarkar, GTB, and Chhota Bazar Civil hospitals in east Delhi are all offering testing services. The public health agency has requested help from 78 drivers who are no longer responsible for garbage collection due to the job being outsourced to a commercial concessionaire in order to boost the workforce for public awareness and fogging in high-risk regions. The official said, “We are focusing on border areas as states like UP have reported many cases”.
SDMC is now working to build dengue wards near its 18 blood testing centers, which include colony hospitals in Tilak Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, polyclinics in Ghumanhera, Tughlaqabad, Jangpura, and Bijwasan, as well as maternity hospitals. According to an SDMC official, testing kits have been distributed to all health centers. He said, “We have distributed 11,000 kits for testing dengue and chikungunya to all health centres. They are also doing platelet testing and giving immediate treatment to infected people in OPDs”.
