While taking command of the situation arising due to the Corona pandemic in the National Capital Region ( NCR), Union Home Minister Amit Shah while interacting with the district level officials of UP and Haryana on Thursday instructed to increase the rate of Corona testing through a special drive.

Union Home Minister (HM) Amit Shah on Thursday held an online meeting with the district level officials of UP and Haryana in which the Chief Secretaries of the two states were also present along with Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, Union Home Secretary and ICMR director.

Addressing the officials, Shah stressed on the need for increasing the testing rate of Corona through a drive and said that those who are in the contact history of the Corona positives should be isolated. He asked the officials to examine the reasons for mortality rates due to Corona and directed them to prepare an effective strategy to reduce it.

He also told the officials that for effective control on the pandemic, the government of India is coming up with an action plan soon for the NCR region. “Antigentest has been started for Corona testing and its report would be available within 15 minutes,” said the HM adding that its cost would be just Rs 450 plus the taxes.

Shah also informed that for Corona testing the patients would be necessarily required to give the photocopy of their IDs, particularly in private labs. He also instructed the district officials to send the details of hospitals with the availability of beds to the ICMR by Friday afternoon while to the director of ICMR, he instructed to organise a training session for health workers of NCR region and to ensure providing essential kits to them.

Shah advised the officials to work as a team in their respective areas and with determination and sensitivity to ensure victory over Corona. We have to win this battle for humanity, he said.

Chief Secretary of UP RK Tiwari briefed the home minister about the efforts of the state government and said that presently the capacity of testing is 16,000 per day and in next three days it would increase to 20,000. The government aims at increasing this capacity to 25,000 by June 30. In case of an emergency, truNat machines would be used for testing that are provided to all districts.

The Chief Secretary also told that there are 5,600 Corona patients in the state at present. The capacity of isolation beds across the state is 1.01 lakh that would be increased to 1.5 lakh by the end of this month.

Tiwari also told about the success of CM helpline for Corona patients adding that the number of complaints has reduced considerably because of the feedback from the cured patients and the family members of Corona patients which are being dealt with on a regular basis.

From Meerut, Divisional Commissioner Anita C Meshram, District Magistrate Anil Dhingra, SSP Ajay Sahani, and CMO Dr Rajkumar were also present in the meeting.