Amid a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has advised Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments to survey private hospitals in their NCR districts on the lines of Delhi.
MHA’s Measures
Ten multi-disciplinary teams of MHA, formed to visit more than 100 private hospitals in Delhi in order to assess bed utilisation and testing capacity and to identify extra ICU beds, have submitted reports, according to the MHA. These reports are presently under consideration of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Further, following the Home Minister’s directive, about 150 hospital beds have been added in Delhi in the last three days, informed the Ministry of Home Affairs.
500 isolation beds at a COVID care centre in Delhi's Chhatarpur will also be converted to beds with oxygen facility. Beds to be ready by the weekend, reported ANI, citing MHA.
MHA also said that the current capacity of 3,652 ICU beds will be further ramped up.
Reportedly train coaches with 800 beds at Shakur Basti railway station will become functional and doctors and paramedics from the CAPF will main these coaches.
To ramp up Delhi’s medical infrastructure, all 75 doctors and 251 paramedics from the CAPF have reported for duty, said the Ministry of Home Affairs. 50 doctors and 175 paramedics have been deployed at Chhatarpur and Shakur Basti COVID care centres.
Delhi government, according to MHA, has been asked to refer patients needing critical care to these facilities.
Delhi Govt’s Measures
Meanwhile, the Delhi government has directed 42 private hospitals to reserve 80 percent of their total ICU/HDU bed capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients with immediate effect, reported ANI.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain took to Twitter to say: “This will increase 260 ICU beds in pvt hospitals for COVID treatment. (Sic)”
Stayendar Jain also tweeted that the Delhi government has ordered 90 private hospitals to reserve 60 percent of their total bed capacity for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
“This will increase 2,644 beds in pvt hospitals for covid treatment,” said the health minister.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also took to Twitter on Thursday to say:
“Visited DDU hospital. Met the docs and Medical Director. Am grateful to them that they agreed to increase no of ICU beds from 50 to 100. We r trying to increase no of ICU beds across Delhi on war footing. (Sic)”
Earlier in the day, the Delhi CM had informed on Twitter that he met the Lieutenant General and briefed him “about the corona situation in Delhi. We agreed that to create effective deterrent so that people don’t omit wearing masks, we need to increase fine from the present Rs 500 to Rs 2000.”
Background
Delhi on Wednesday recorded 7,486 new coronavirus cases, taking the infection tally in the city to over 5 lakh.
The cases in Delhi had reached an all-time high of 8,593 on 11 November. Since then, fewer cases have reported over the next few days, but on some days, the number of tests conducted was far lesser than the usual.
On Wednesday, 19 November, the health data also showed that the number of fatalities recorded over the last 24 hours was 131, which is the highest single-day count in the national capital till date and pushes the total number of deaths to 7,943.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had on Wednesday approved the Delhi government’s proposal to allow only 50 guests to attend a wedding, instead of the earlier limit of 200.
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