Set up helplines, help desks in hospitals for Covid patients, families: Delhi L-G

As on Friday afternoon, 11,673 out of 16,212 total Covid-19 beds in the city’s hospitals were occupied, government records said

Delhi lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal on Friday directed agencies to scale up enforcement of Covid-19 regulations and asked the government to set up a helpline to help people check availability of beds in hospitals. He gave the directions in a meeting he chaired to review enforcement efforts and preparedness to implement restrictions the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) imposed in light of the ongoing Covid-19 surge in the Capital.

Delhi L-G Anil Baijal. (PTI)

“ The L-G, along with the chief secretary, police commissioner, divisional commissioner, municipal corporation commissioners and other senior officers concerned, reviewed the enforcement of Covid-19-appropriate behaviour and preparedness for implementing the guidelines. (He) advised targeted and aggressive deployment and enforcement in areas where crowding takes place, as also during peak crowding hours and asked for a temporal graph of the outcomes,” said a senior official in the L-G’s office.

The senior official further said, “(L-G) asked the chief secretary to ensure setting up of helplines that inform people of the availability of beds in hospitals, apart from displaying the same on government portals, and establishing help desks to assist patients and attendants in every hospital. These should be amply publicised. Concerted and coordinated efforts are required from all agencies and stakeholders to contain the existing surge.”

Currently, the Delhi government has a website and mobile application to help people with bed availability. In the past few days, as Delhi witnessed severe increase in occupancy rate of hospital beds, there were complaints about figures in the website and the application not being updated in realtime and causing inconvenience to people. Senior government officials, however, said that dedicated teams are working on real time update of bed-related data round the clock.

As on Friday afternoon, 11,673 out of 16,212 total Covid-19 beds in the city’s hospitals were occupied, government records said.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Thursday imposed restrictions that involve a weekend curfew, temporary shutting down of shopping malls, gyms, spas and entertainment parks, a cap of 30% on capacity of cinema halls and multiplexes, restricting dining in at restaurants, and limiting weekly markets to maximum one per day in one municipal zone. There is already a night curfew in place, which will continue, the DDMA said in its order which effectively notifies the new restrictions.

The DDMA is chaired by Baijal. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is its vice-chairperson.