As Delhi witnesses another spike in coronavirus infections, several private hospitals and two government hospitals in the city are left with no intensive care unit (ICU) beds with ventilators, which are extremely crucial for patients with severe disease.
According to the Delhi government, 68% of ICU beds with ventilators are occupied across the city, while 69% without ventilators are filled.
Dr R K Gupta, a member of Delhi government committee to check Covid-19 preparedness in the national capital said: “This looks very alarming. We should have much better infrastructure in both government and private hospitals like America. Secondly, the hospitals can divert beds available for normal patients to Covid patients. That is all we can do at this juncture.”
At least 38 private hospitals have no ICU beds with ventilators.
All such beds in Delhi government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and the central government’s Northern Railway Hospital are also occupied.
The situation is also bad at central government hospitals such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where only five out of 50 ICU beds with ventilators are left and only one bed out of 54 is vacant at Safdarjung Hospital.
At Delhi government’s Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Narayan Hospital, only six of 200 ICU-ventilator beds are available and in GTB hospital, only 18 of 128 ICU beds with ventilators are vacant.
Some other hospital are also running short on such beds in both the central and Delhi government’s hospitals.
Delhi has been recording over 5,000 Covid-19 cases for five consecutive days.
It recorded 5,891 new cases, the highest daily cases so far, on October 30. The spike in cases has coincided with the festive season, pollution and the onset of winter.
The central government yesterday asked the Delhi administration to concentrate efforts and target RT-PCR tests in sensitive and critical zones such as restaurants, marketplaces, barber shops and salons to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.
The city government was also asked to ensure availability of medical resources including beds, ICUs, and ventilators, step up contact tracing and monitor
quarantined contacts.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) yesterday reviewed the situation with officials of the Delhi government, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF) and health experts.