Covid=19

‘Give COVID-19 results in 48 hrs or face action’

City reports one death and 448 new cases, says government

08/05/2020, STAFF REPORTER ,NEW DELHI

A worker sprays disinfectant in Laxmi Nagar on Thursday.R.V. Moorthy

The Delhi government has warned action against all COVlD-19 testing labs if they do not give results of samples collected within a maximum of 48 hours.

The warning came on a day when the city reported one death and 448 new COVID-19 cases. This is the highest single-day jump so far, said government officials. The total number of deaths stands at 66 while cases at 5,980. Of the total cases, 1,931 people have recovered and there are 3,983 active cases.

The order read: “From May 7, 2020, reports of all samples collected must be given within 24 hours and not later than 48 hours, in any case… Non-compliance of the orders will be viewed seriously and action will be taken immediately as per the provisions of the Delhi Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19, regulations, 2020 and other Rules and regulation in this regard.”

On Wednesday, Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said “thousands of pending results are coming now”.

Mr. Jain on Thursday said they were in talks with other States to send back people, who were connected to a religious gathering in Nizamuddin here in March. He added that these people, who had tested negative for COVID-19, after they completed the quarantine period, were not sent back to their States because of the lockdown till May 3.

“Under the current lockdown, stranded people can be shifted. So we are shifting them. We have sent lists of people to other States,” Mr. Jain said, adding: “COVID-19 is going to be here for a long time; it is not going to end in one or two months. We have to learn to live with it.”

New containment zones

In a related development, four more areas in the city were delisted as “containment zone” by the Delhi government on Thursday.