Days after the Union Home Minister took charge of tackling Delhi's coronavirus situation, the MHA on June 19 announced that the committee has recommended new lower rates for COVID beds in private hospitals in the city.

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The new rates would be Rs 8,000-10,000 rupees per day for isolation bed, Rs 13,000-15,000 ICU daily without a ventilator, 15,000 to 18,000 daily with ICU ventilator. An order is expected to be issued soon by the Delhi government. Earlier hospitals were charging 24,000-25,000 for isolation ward beds per day, 34,000-43,000 for daily ICU without a ventilator, 44,000-54,000 for daily bed with ICU ventilator. The charges did not include PPE kits.

"To provide relief to the common man in Delhi, the Home Minister constituted a committee under Member of NITI Aayog to fix rates charged by Pvt hospitals in Delhi for isolation beds, ICUs without ventilator support and ICUs with ventilator support," Home Minister's office tweeted. "Committee has recommended Rs 8,000-10,000, 13,000-15,000 and 15,000-18,000 including PPE costs for isolation bed, ICUs without and with ventilator respectively to all hospitals as compared to the current charges of Rs 24,000-25,000, 34,000-43,000 and 44,000-54,000 (excluding PPE cost)," it added.

Home Ministry has also said that sample testing has been doubled immediately in pursuance of decisions taken by the Home Minister in a series of meetings. A total of testing samples of 27,263 have been collected in Delhi from 15 to 17 June 2020 against the daily collection which varied between 4,000-4,500 earlier.