Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a meeting with the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the national capital and its adjoining areas, located in the two neighbouring states.
Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have seen a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, leading to the Home Minister stepping in to handle the situation and improve the health infrastructure.
Shah reviewed the COVID-19 situation in Delhi-NCR with the three chief ministers, a home ministry official said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan was also present in the meeting.
The NCR comprises districts belonging to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The prominent ones being Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) and Ghaziabad (both Uttar Pradesh) and Gurgaon, Faridabad (both in Haryana).
Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi -- Yogi Adityanath, Manohar Lal Khattar and Arvind Kejriwal respectively -- attended the meeting through video-conference.
The novel coronavirus has infected 89,000 people in Delhi and killed 2,803 as on Wednesday.
In Uttar Pradesh, the coronavirus tally has reached 24,056 cases and 718 deaths.
In the NCR district of Gautam Buddh Nagar, 2,362 COVID-19 cases have been detected positive and 22 people have lost their lives so far.
In Ghaziabad, so far 851 people have been infected by the coronavirus and 56 have died.
A total of 14,941 COVID-19 cases were detected in Haryana and the virus so far has claimed 240 lives in the state.
Gurgaon and Faridabad have reported 92 and 80 fatalities, respectively. The two districts put together account for over 9,300 infections.
Restrictions imposed earlier on the free movement of people between Delhi and NCR became a major issue during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister on Thursday had asked officials to stay alert on the movement of people in NCR districts to check the spread of COVID-19.
"By remaining alert in NCR districts (of UP), the spread of COVID-19 can be checked. There should be alertness on movement in these districts," a statement quoted the CM as telling senior officials during a meeting with them.
On June 18, at a meeting, the home minister had said a common strategy should be framed for Delhi and NCR to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and added that the suburbs like Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad can't be separated from the national capital in this battle.
The home minister swung into action to handle the coronavirus situation in the national capital since early last month after criticism in different quarters of the Delhi government's handling of the COVID-19 situation, with complaints of non-availability of beds in hospitals for patients and difficulty in getting the tests done in laboratories.
The home minister has been leading from the front after taking charge of Delhi's fight against the coronavirus.
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