Govt will scale up general and ICU beds for Covid-19 patients, says Arvind Kejriwal

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government will further scale up the number of general beds and intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients across hospitals operated by the Delhi government.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said his government will further scale up the number of general beds and intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients across hospitals operated by the Delhi government and take necessary steps to ensure that the fatality rate does not increase even though Covid-19 cases have witnessed a steep increase over the past two weeks. On Wednesday, Kejriwal had termed the recent spike in cases a “third wave”.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (HT photo)

On Thursday, he also said the government will intensify “targeted tests” by focusing on high-risk individuals, which included contacts of people with Covid-19, and by scaling up tests through mobile vans deployed in markets and other crowded public places.

The chief minister issued a statement after a review meeting of the Covid-19 situation and preparedness, especially at a time when the capital is also witnessing severe air pollution, with the city’s air quality remaining severe or very poor over the past few days.

Delhi on Thursday recorded 6,715 new Covid cases, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded till date to 416,653. As many as 371,155 people have recovered from the disease and 6,769 have died of the illness. After conducting 4,932,727 tests, Delhi also recorded a positivity rate of 8.45 %, according to the government’s health bulletin.

The statement issued by the chief minister said, “The medical infrastructure will be ramped up, with an increase in the oxygen and ICU beds at the Delhi government hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.”

The Delhi government plans to add about 5,000 more dedicated beds to be able to handle up to 12,000 daily cases, HT had reported earlier this week, citing documents prepared to augment the health care infrastructure.

Currently, there are a total of 15,772 covid-19 in hospitals across the city – both public and private – of which 7,368 were occupied as on Thursday evening. Other than that, there are around 3,200 ICU beds, of which 2,340 were occupied, said the government’s website on bed availability.

Kejriwal’s statement further said, “The Delhi high court has stayed the Delhi government’s order to increase ICU beds in private hospitals. The Delhi government has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, to lift the stay on the reservation of beds in private hospitals, keeping in view the critical Covid situation.”

On September 22, the high court had stayed the Delhi government’s order directing 33 prominent private hospitals in the city to reserve 80% of ICU beds for Covid-19 patients.

DELHI 17th IN DEATHS PER MILLION

“All steps should be taken to maintain the lower fatality rate in Delhi. At present, Delhi is in the 17th position in terms of the deaths per million population, far behind all metropolitan cities in the country,” the statement said.

Another statement issued by health minister Satyendar Jain’s office said, “To analyse any data regarding Covid-19, Delhi should be compared with (other) metro cities of India… It should be noted that Delhi is at the 17th position in terms of Covid-19 fatality rate with 338 (per million) whereas Mumbai tops the list of deaths per million...”

Earlier on Thursday, Jain had attended a video conference chaired by Union health minister Harsh Vardhan. The meeting was also attended by lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal, who said, “To reduce positivity and mortality rates in view of the surge in cases, we stressed on the need for coordinated action towards targeted testing, early detection, enhanced contact tracing, and extensive campaign for ensuring Covid-19 appropriate behaviour besides augmenting hospital infrastructure.”