The Delhi High Court has directed the AAP government and the Centre to increase the number of beds and ventilators for Covid-19 patients in the national capital which has recorded almost 37,000 cases.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued the directions after the Delhi government informed it that till June 9 there were 9,179 beds for Covid-19 patients in the city and out of that 4,914 were occupied and remaining were available. The order was passed on June 11 but made available on Saturday.
The Delhi government also told the court that a total of 569 ventilators were available, out of which 315 were being utilised and remaining are available.
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“Considering the gravity of the situation, we hereby direct the respondents (Centre and Delhi government) to increase the number of the beds for Cocid-19 patients and also try to increase the number of ventilators so that all Covid patients in need can get these facilities,” the bench said in its order, according to PTI.
The Delhi government had recently faced flak with complaints that patients were not being admitted as many hospitals claimed that there were no beds available.
{{/usCountry}}The Delhi government had recently faced flak with complaints that patients were not being admitted as many hospitals claimed that there were no beds available.
{{/usCountry}}The high court also said it expects all hospitals in the national capital to correctly upload the availability of real-time bed capacity data so that the public may know in advance where to go if they are suffering from Covid-19.
The court’s order came while disposing a plea by several lawyers seeking proper implementation of containment guidelines and to ensure availability of adequate number of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients in Delhi
The Chief Minister’s office in a tweet on Friday night said that out of a total of 9,558 beds 5,361 were occupied and 4.197 were vacant. It also said that out of a total of 598 ventilators 345 were currently being used.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that Delhi would need 150,000 beds by the end of July if its hospitals are to also treat Covid-19 patients from other states.