Told to go slow on Covid-19 tests, alleges Delhi minister. Centre responds

The marked improvement in the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has been possible due to this enhanced testing and other containment measures, said the ministry.

The Centre on Thursday dismissed the charge of putting pressure on the Delhi government to not increase Covid-19 testing as “false and baseless”, underlining that it was after the intervention of home minister Amit Shah that daily Covid-10 testing in the national capital, averaging around 4,000 per day till mid June, went up to around 18-20,000 per day in a calibrated manner.

The allegation was made by Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain in a letter to home ministry on August 27. (Arvind Yadav/HT File Photo)

The allegation was made by Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain in a letter to home ministry on August 27.

“The allegation raised in the letter of the Health Minister of Delhi Govt dated August 27, 2020, which is addressed to Union Home Secretary, to the effect that MHA is putting pressure on Delhi Govt officers not to increase testing in Delhi is false and baseless,” the home ministry tweeted.

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The marked improvement in the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has been possible due to this enhanced testing and other containment measures, said the ministry.

“An MHA note has only proposed that the views of an expert committee headed by Dr VK Paul may be taken on the proposed enhancement in testing in Delhi, for technical guidance on various issues such as mix of RT-PCR & Rapid Antigen, categories of geographical areas & demographics etc,” the home ministry said in another tweet.

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On Thursday, Delhi recorded a spike of 1,840 fresh Covid-19 cases, highest single-day spike in August, taking tally to 1,67,604 while toll climbed to 4,369.