Amit Shah reviews COVID-19 situation in Delhi-NCR

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday reviewed the coronavirus situation in Delhi and the National Capital Region, including Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad, amidst increasing number of COVID-19 cases, officials said.

The movement of people between Delhi and NCR districts also figured in the meeting. The home minister reviewed the steps taken to check the spread of the COVId-19, a central government official said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava, senior officials of NCR districts and Ministries of Home and Health and ICMR attended the meeting.

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The NCR comprises districts belonging to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The most prominent among them are Gurugram, Faridabad (both in Haryana), Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) and Ghaziabad (both Uttar Pradesh), and Alwar (Rajasthan).

Authorities of Haryana, UP and Delhi have imposed restrictions in different times during the COVID-19 lockdown over movement of people between the states, leading to inconvenience to many.

On June 4, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to convene a meeting of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for easing inter-state movement at all borders in the NCR.

It also observed that there should be a consistent policy in this regard for the NCR.

On June 12, the top court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to explain the guidelines issued by the Noida administration on institutional quarantine, observing they are not in "conformity" with the national guidelines.

"There cannot be a guideline contrary to the national guidelines," the court said, adding, that any directive contrary to the national or state guidelines might lead to chaos.

The Centre informed the apex court that the union home secretary had convened a joint meeting on June 9 with chief secretaries of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to deal with the issue of restriction on movement in the NCR and now there was no barrier on the borders of Delhi and Haryana but Uttar Pradesh.

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The home minister had a series of meetings with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Kejriwal and senior officials in last four days to strengthen the health infrastructure in Delhi.

Shah also visited the national capital's LNJP Hospital on Monday and took stock of its healthcare facilities besides giving necessary instructions for improvement.

On Wednesday, the home ministry announced that the price for the COVID-19 test in Delhi has been fixed at Rs 2,400 as suggested by a high-level committee set up by the home minister and tests will be done via Rapid Antigen methodology.

India's total COVID-19 cases reached 3,66,946 on Thursday morning while the death toll has climbed to 12,237.

The number of active cases stands at 1,60,384 while 1,94,324 people have recovered, thus, around 52.95 per cent patients have recovered so fa