- The Delhi government has directed hospitals to reserve 60% of the beds for Covid treatment.
- With this step, 90 private hospitals would have added 2,644 beds exclusively for Covid patients.
- Delhi’s medical facilities have 17,300 Covid beds, out of which 540 ICU beds are vacant.
THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: Meant especially for Covid patients, Delhi is all to acquire 4,000 additional hospital beds by December. Considering the spurt in Covid cases, the Delhi government decided to add more ICU beds at government hospitals. As a part of measures to combat the third wave of pandemic, government-run hospitals like Guru Teg Bahadur and Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital would be endowed with more hospital beds for the care of Covid patients.
Meanwhile, several private hospitals have also chosen to reserve beds for coronavirus patients. In compliance with the Delhi government’s order, private hospitals have reserved 60% hospital beds for Covid patients. This step will increase facilities to treat Covid patients by 2644 beds. Moreover, the state government and the central government will add 1,413 ICU beds in state-run medical facilities.
As of now, Delhi’s medical facilities have a total of 17,300 Covid beds (including 1,396 ICU ones with ventilators and 2,623 ICU beds without ventilators). Out of which, 540 ICU beds are vacant now.
With the surge of Covid cases in Delhi, the occupancy of ICU beds with and without ventilators has also increased. The occupancy of ICU beds, Covid and non-Covid, is higher in private hospitals than in government ones.
Since the beginning of November, Delhi has been reporting around 7,500 fresh cases every day and had even touched the 8,000 mark. The alarming increase in Covid cases has also caused the Delhi government to jump into action and take certain immediate measures to increase the number of Covid beds. So far, the Delhi government has directed 90 private hospitals to reserve 60% of their total bed capacity exclusively for the treatment of Covid patients. Further, a government official even said that many private hospitals have also voluntarily decided to increased the percentage of reserved Covid beds and other hospitals are considering on the same.
Source: TOI
