Coronavirus cases in Delhi near 45000-mark, Home Ministry caps test price at Rs. 2,400

Adding to the list of politicians testing positive for the coronavirus, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain and Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Atishi complained of a mild fever and cough on Tuesday after which she was screened for the highly contagious virus.

The reports of the AAP MLA, who represents the Kalkaji constituency in south Delhi, came on Wednesday showing her having mild symptoms of the virus.

She is presently in home quarantine.

She is the third MLA of AAP to have tested positive for the virus after Vishesh Ravi (Karol Bagh) and Rajkumar Anand (Patel Nagar).

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain tested positive for the infection on Wednesday, following a negative test report the day before.

He has been admitted to state-run Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) with high temperature and low oxygen levels.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier tested negative for COVID-19, tweeted in support of Atishi and wrote: "Atishiji played a crucial role in the fight against coronavirus. I hope she will recover fast and dedicate her service for the welfare of people."

AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, representing Delhi's Greater Kailash area, also tweeted this afternoon, writing: "Get well soon Atishi and Akshay Marathe (an AAP member who has also tested positive for COVID-19), recover soon from corona."

Responding to the tweets, Atishi replied: 

Delhi has been witnessing a massive surge in the number of cases, with over 1,000 fresh infections reported daily for the past few days.

The total tally in the national capital is worryingly inching towards the 45,000-mark, with 1,859 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.

As per the Arvind Kejriwal-government, the number of cases could cross 5.5 lakh by July-end, triggering a problem of about 80,000 beds shortage.

"We may need more ICUs in the coming days. Discussed wid doctors of our Del govt hospitals on how to increase no of ICUs," Kejriwal tweeted on Wednesday evening.

Earlier, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that in order to meet the requirement of additional beds, Delhi Government is planning to use the auditoriums in nearly 242 schools to set up beds for COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalisation.

Coronavirus tests to get cheaper in Delhi:

The price for conducting a COVID-19 test in Delhi has been capped at Rs 2,400, the Home Ministry said in a tweet on Wednesday night.

It  stated that the move was aimed at "providing relief to the common man."

The Home Ministry also informed that time taken to deliver results of these tests conducted via the Rapid Antigen methodology cleared by the ICMR - would be decreased.