Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday convened a meeting on the prevention and control of dengue and malaria and directed officials to intensify fogging and sanitation drives in dengue-prone areas.
Health department officials and heads of all Delhi government-run hospitals took part in the meeting and provided detailed updates on their preparedness. This was the second such meeting within a week.
Meanwhile, the BJP alleged that AAP has failed to control dengue. “MCD’s failure to check the spread of dengue in 2023 was so grave that it has stopped issuing data about dengue cases and deaths,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said.
Earlier, the MCD used to share a vector-borne disease report with various stakeholders, including the press, once a week. This practice was stopped just before the G-20 Summit last year and has not been resumed.
Shikha Roy, a senior MCD councillor, said earlier the MCD’s vector-borne report was received by all councillors during House sessions, but as the civic officials stopped sending the report weekly, we have also stopped receiving any information on the matter.
“Now we have put up questions during the House sessions to get access to the report, which is only answered in the next House session, and they have stopped hosting regular House sessions as well,” she added.
Separate beds
During the meeting, officials of many hospitals informed the Minister that some beds have been reserved separately for dengue patients so that they can get better treatment and diseases like dengue and malaria do not spread to other patients.
“The hospital administration also informed that to prevent the spread of diseases like dengue and malaria, a net has also been arranged around the beds of dengue patients to prevent the possibility of the spread of the disease through mosquitos,” an official statement said. The Health Minister also instructed all officials present in the meeting to make similar arrangements in their hospitals.
