Delhi govt readies health infra for further surge in Covid-19 cases

The Delhi government has stepped up efforts in fighting the Covid-19 battle as the cases across the city continue to rise.

After a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, held to review the Delhi government’s Covid-19 management strategies, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that going by the coronavirus disease’s current doubling rate of 12.6 days in the Capital, the city would need around 80,000 hospital beds by July 31. Sisodia also said Delhi could expect to see 5.5 lakh Covid-19 cases by July 31.

Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia address media after meeting with Delhi Lt. Gov. Anil Baijal on Tuesday. (PTI Photo)

With the number of Covid-19 cases in the city set to cross the 30,000-mark, Baijal directed the Delhi government to start readying health infrastructure on a “war footing”.

Documents seen by HT showed that as on Tuesday, the government had identified 2,950 additional beds, taking the number of Covid-19 beds in the city to at least 11,842 by June 20.

But, the documents also revealed that the government had a stock of 12,000 viral transport mediums (VTMs) as on Tuesday — which will last “only for 10 days”.

VTMs are equipment needed to collect and transport test samples. They are the kits that contain the transport media in a tube as well as the swab.

“There is a shortage of VTMs across the country, Delhi cannot be blamed alone. One of the reasons why testing was being carried out in a restricted manner is also the shortage of VTMs. When there is a shortage of product, we have to rationalise its use,” said a senior government official, who asked to stay anonymous.

On June 2, the Delhi government had issued an order asking hospitals and testing labs to test only symptomatic people for Covid-19.

This was overturned by the L-G on Monday, as he reasoned that keeping an asymptomatic person out of testing would adversely impact contact tracing and containment of infections in the city.

Over the past one week, several hospitals have also stated that they are putting a cap on the number of Covid-19 tests being carried out on a daily basis due to a “shortage of resources”, though there was no official order from the government in this regard.

As per documents presented before the L-G, and seen by HT, the state health department has projected the number of active cases in Delhi to touch 60,004 by June 30, 134,722 by July 15 and 319,237 by July 31.

The bed requirement accordingly has been estimated at 15,001 (June 30), 33,680 (July 15) and 79,809 (July 31).

The L-G was also informed that the government is in the process of ordering 20,000 new oxygen concentrators, a senior government official said. This will be in addition to the order of 2,000 oxygen concentrators that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced last week.

When asked if the city administration was prepared with the plan to arrange for 80,000 beds, a Delhi government spokesperson said, “That is what we highlighted to the L-G. If we allow patients from outside Delhi to get treated in our hospitals, no matter how many beds we arrange, it won’t be enough. From the government’s side, we are doing our best to make all arrangements.”

The L-G’s office, in a statement after the meeting, said the government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of divisional commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar to explore the possibility of accommodating for additional beds in the city, in spaces like stadiums.

“The panel has, so far, suggested Pragati Maidan, Talkatora Indoor Stadium, Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Dhyanchand National Stadium and so on to be used as make-shift hospitals,” the L-G office said.

The fleet of CATS ambulance has been augmented from 160 to 450, which has reduced the response time to less than 30 minutes, a senior government official said.

As on Tuesday, Delhi had 8,892 hospital beds, 582 ICU beds, 507 Ventilators beds and 3590 oxygenated-supported beds in Covid-designated hospitals.

“Around 2,950 additional beds will be ready by June 20. This includes 450 beds in the new Delhi government hospital in Burari, which is expected to be operational by June 20. Another 500 beds have been earmarked in other government hospitals. In addition, district magistrates are linking 19 hospitals with hotels, which would tentatively increase the capacity by approximately 2,000 beds by June 15,” said a senior government official.

So far, the health department has already linked eight four- and five-star hotels with some of the city’s major hospitals. The cost of beds in these hotels have been capped at Rs. 10,000 a day, including housekeeping, food and so on, apart from medical services, which are the responsibility of the linked hospital.

The government has also posted IAS officers as ‘administrative officers’ in Covid hospitals to monitor their operations. On Sunday, the government had also ordered setting up of help desks, to be worked by government officers, in all government hospitals to facilitate the admission process.

However, as on Tuesday, most Delhi government hospitals did not have these help desks.

Hospitals such as Dr Hegdewar and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalay said the respective officers deployed by the government had not reported there so far.

As of Monday, Delhi had 29,943 Covid cases out of which 17,712 were active cases. As many as 874 people have died and 11,357 have recovered.

The case fatality rate in Delhi is 2.92% as compared to the national average of 2.81% and the recovery rate is 38%. Delhi is conducting 13,543 tests per million as compared to the national average of 3531 tests per million, government reports showed.