50% of ICU and Ward Beds in 115 Private Hospitals Reserved for Covid-19 Patients in Delhi Amid Surge

Amid surge in the daily Covid-19 cases in the national capital as well as the jump in positivity rate, the Delhi government has directed 115 private hospitals to reserve 50% of ICU and ward bed capacity for the treatment of coronavirus cases.

On April 8, Delhi recorded 7,437 cases, 24 deaths while the number of active surged to 23,181. The positivity rate too jumped to 8.10%.

“Therefore, in order to augment the bed capacity for Covid-19 patients, 115 private hospitals either having a total bed capacity of 50 beds and more, or already identified or registered for providing Covid related treatment are hereby directed to reserve 50% of their total ICU and ward capacity or 1.25 times the occupancy of COVID ICU or COVID Ward beds displayed on Covid-19 data management portal on 08.04.2021, which ever is higher”, the DGHS order read.

Further, these 115 private hospitals have been given the liberty to reserve more than 50% of beds for COVID-related treatment and they have also been allowed to temporarily increase 25% of their total bed capacity, provided the increased bed capacity is used for the exclusive treatment of virus patients.

The decision came after a meeting chaired by Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday with senior officers of the health department to review the availability of ICU beds and ward beds for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in the capital.

On March 31, the Delhi government had directed 33 private hospitals in the capital to reserve 25% of their ICU and ward beds for Covid-related treatment. On April 5, the DGHS issued an order to 54 large private hospitals having a capacity of 100 or more beds to reserve at least 30% of ICU and ward beds for Covid-19 patients.

The latest Delhi government order, issued on April 8 notes that the positivity rate in Delhi has increased from 2.71% on March 31 to 6.10% on April 7 and the active cases had surged from 8,838 on 31st March to 19,455 on 7th of April. It also observes that the occupancy of Covid ICU beds has surged and reached more than 85% in 20 out of the 54 private hospitals, and occupancy of Covid ward beds have reached more than 75% in 22 of the 54 private hospitals.

As per the Delhi Government’s Corona App, the capital has a total of 9005 Covid19 beds out of which 4464 are occupied and 4,541 are vacant as on the 8th of April. The current number of ICU beds with ventilators is 959 of which 651 are occupied while 308 are vacant. Of the 1664 Covid-19 ICU beds, 980 are occupied while 684 are vacant. More than fifty percent of the ICU beds and the ICU beds with ventilators are already occupied with no sign of the Covid-19 surge abating anytime soon.

Meanwhile, in a separate order issued on the same day, the Delhi government has directed that services of doctors belonging to Dental and Ayush cadre be also used for duties in Covid hospitals.

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