If numbers grow, Delhi will have more Covid hospitals: Kejriwal

Battling the surge in the number of corona-positive patients, the Delhi government has come up with a strategy. According to the government, if the need increases, hospitals that were earlier asked to reserve 20% of their beds for coronavirus patients will now see them turn completely into Covid-19 hospitals.

There are two reasons behind this–first, the increasing number of cases in the city; and second, some hospitals are not able to manage in dealing with both regular and coronavirus patients.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that as the number of patients in Delhi grows every day, the city will see a corresponding increase in Covid-19 hospitals.

There are 61 private hospitals in Delhi that have converted 20% of their beds into Covid-19 specific units. Now, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has made it clear that any hospitals facing difficulty in treating regular patients can be turned into only dealing with the pandemic.

“61 hospitals in the city were ordered to turn 20% of their beds into corona units. Till now, we have turned five government and three private medical institutions into complete corona hospitals. Three more private hospitals were added to this list on Wednesday–Ganga Ram, Moolchand and Saroj Hospital. They will now only treat coronavirus patients,” said Manish Sisodia.

With the addition of these three new hospitals, 773 new beds have now been added to the list–508 beds in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, 126 in Mool Chand Khairati Lal Hospital and 139 beds in Saroj Super Specialty Hospital.

This adds to the existing list of private hospitals fully dedicated to dealing with the pandemic. The list includes 2,000 beds in Lok Nayak Hospital, 500 beds each in Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and 200 beds each in Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital and Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital.

Knowing the government’s readiness to fight the corona pandemic, five hospitals of Delhi government are fighting the battle with corona completely. With the government now increasing private hospitals’ participation, the total number of beds in Delhi is over 8,300. About 3,440 patients suffering from the virus are currently admitted in these hospitals. The city has about 408 ventilators for these patients, out of which 255 are in use. Meanwhile, the government is repeatedly emphasising the need to stay at home and medicate according to what doctors have suggested even for mild symptomatic patients.

Satyendra Jain, Delhi’s health minister, said: “If you have only mild symptoms, stay at home and treat yourself according to what your doctors tell you to. Only get admitted if you have moderate to severe symptoms. If you are breathing 15 times in one minute, then your case is moderate. If you are breathing 30 or more times, you have severe symptoms,”

Delhi accounts for about 10% of India’s coronavirus patients. With more than 25,000 cases and over 600 deaths, the city is one of the worst affected in the world.