The Delhi government has decided against sending samples of H1N1 influenza cases to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, as the institute takes up to 48 hours to report back. Experts say test results should not take more than six hours. Officials say since suspected patients are kept in the same wards as patients confirmed with H1N1 flu, it increases chances of getting infected. Now, the government will send samples only to the Delhi-based National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD).

Another change: hospitals designated to treat H1N1 influenza patients will soon get books and plasma-screen televisions with cable connections for its patients to rid them of boredom.

These are the latest steps in a series of on-the-run changes the Delhi government has made since the first suspected H1N1 influenza patient was admitted in the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on June 1.

A month on, Delhi leads the country’s tally of patients with 31 cases, but has the government got its act together and, more importantly, learnt its lessons from best practices followed globally?

A senior doctor questioned the government’s late reaction in getting books and TVs for patients. “How did they not see it coming?” the doctor wondered. “They knew patients will have to be isolated — these things should have been thought about when authorities sat to chart out a plan.”

Delhi’s Health Secretary J P Singh reasoned this is the first time the state machinery is dealing with a pandemic, so there should be some margin for error. “Things take some time to settle down; in fact we are actually not doing as badly,” he said. “Given the circumstances, we have done well to contain the spread of infections.”

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