In Delhi, oxygen for serious patients will be made available on one call

New Delhi : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejrwial assured the residents on the national capital that the oxygen will be made available to the patients with on-call facility. The government, he also said, has more than tripled its testing levels -- going up from 5,000 to 18,000 tests a day -- most of them through a rapid testing process that yields results in around 30 minutes.

The new measures have been announced after Delhi overtook Tamil Nadu to take up the second spot on the list of states with most coronavirus cases. Maharashtra is leading the tally with over 1 lakh cases.

The numbers in the national capital has neared the 60,000-mark -- 3,000 people tested positive on Sunday, taking the total to 59,746. Mr Kejriwal said only 25,000 of them are active cases, 33,000 patients have already recovered.

All coronavirus patients in Delhi will have to go to COVID-19 care centres and those who have facilities at home and have no other risk factors like diabetes, hypertension or kidney problems, can avail home isolation in the capital, the Centre said today, hours after the Delhi government issued a revised order on home quarantine.

Kejriwal mentioned that breathing problems and less oxygen in blood are major complications with the infection. To counter this, the government has said that they will be providing "pulse oxymeter" that will enable people to know the requirement of oxygen even before they have breathing difficulties.

The testing levels of the capital have shot up following the intervention of the Supreme Court earlier this month. Aggressive testing, followed by isolation and treatment, has helped control the spread of the coronavirus infection in other parts of the world.