Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday announced measures to battle the worsening coronavirus outbreak in the capital, pledging to increase the number of beds and triple the number of daily tests.

Shah made the announcements in a series of tweets after a meeting with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and senior officials.

The steps include deploying 500 rail coaches in the capital with 8,000 beds to treat Covid-19 patients. Shah also tweeted that coronavirus tests in Delhi would be doubled in the next two days and tripled after six days.

In a letter to Vardhan on Saturday, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had asked for the Indian Council of Medical Research’s testing norms to be amended to allow anyone with symptoms to be tested.

Arvind Kejriwal (PTI)

On Sunday, Shah announced: “In order to be able to get contact mapping done well in Delhi’s containment zones, a comprehensive health survey of every person will be done from house to house, whose report will come in one week. For better monitoring, the Aarogya Setu app will be downloaded in every person’s mobile over there.” Delhi has 242 containment zones now.

Another report is expected on Monday on making beds available in private hospitals at 60 per cent of their rates. Shah also announced that new guidelines would be issued for the conduct of quicker last rites of Covid-19 victims, and that scouts, guides, NCC, NSS, and other voluntary organisations would join the war against the pandemic and that five senior officials would be transferred to the Delhi government to cope with the crisis.

The Union home minister also announced that a committee would be set up at AIIMS to guide patients on telephone.