Delhi govt asks private hospitals to maintain Covid appropriate behaviour, negative RT-PCR mandatory for healthcare workers

In view of rising Covid-19 cases in the national capital, the Delhi government on Sunday has asked private hospitals to ensure that healthcare workers treating non-Covid patients especially in ICUs should maintain Covid appropriate behaviour & should be routinely checked for Covid.

The government also asked private hospitals to ensure that all the healthcare workers must be vaccinated as per the guidelines issued by the ministry of health.

It further said that healthcare workers should not be allowed to work until they show a negative RT-PCR report.

The private hospitals are to create an isolation ward within the ICUs and hospital wards to keep new patients in, till their RT-PCR test returns negative results, the order read.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that there is no plan to impose a lockdown in the national capital at the moment. He appealed to the public to wear masks and not panic.

Delhi logged 17 deaths and 22,751 Covid cases in a day as the positivity rate soared to 23.53 per cent, according to the city health department's data released on Sunday.

The number of new cases reported on Sunday was the highest since May 1 last year when the city recorded 25,219 cases with a positivity rate of 31.61 per cent.