The situation of the Covid-19 pandemic could worsen in New Delhi, warned the policy think tank of the government of India — Niti Aayog.

As per the assessment done by Niti Aayog, cases in Delhi might rise to 500 per million population from the current 361/million. The assessment highlights the violation of Covid-19 protocols done during the festive season. The situation in Delhi is ‘unprecedented’ as per its member Dr VK Paul, reported The Times of India.

This comes after the Home Ministry on Monday held consultations with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The meeting was done to increase ICU beds at the 10,000 Covid-19 facilities at Chhatarpur. Beds with oxygen facilities are also going to be increased. The report quotes a senior Home Ministry official who said that they are hoping to add 250 additional beds at the DRDO hospital in four days.

Sources have said that on Tuesday, the committee led by Dr. Paul will release guidelines for plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. There will be an addition of 10,000 RT PCR kits. This will increase the number of testing to 28,000-29,000 per day. However, more test kits need to be added as the number of testing has to be doubled in the coming few days.

As per the report, there are currently around 9,839 isolation beds with oxygen support in the city. The target is to increase it to 10,630 to support the patients. Currently, the number of ICU beds in Delhi is 3,491 and the occupancy is around 88 percent.

Home Minister of the country, Amit Shah, led a meeting attended by Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday where 12 decisions were taken by the central government to support the fight against coronavirus in Delhi.

Last week, ICMR had declared that the third spike in Covid-19 cases has arrived in Delhi. As per the council, factors like pollution, cold weather and the festive season have contributed to this spike.