Gurugram to reserve 1,000 private hospital beds as Covid-19 cases rise steeply

GURUGRAM: A sudden surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in Gurugram- up by 340 in just three days, including the 157 added on Saturday - is likely to force the government to activate the crisis contingency plan of reserving 1,000 beds in private hospitals.
The government has already taken over 424 hotel rooms for asymptomatic patients and a senior official such patients would be increasingly sent to private quarantine while hospitals would cater to the more serious patients.

With an undisclosed number of patients in home or hotel quarantine while under treatment for Covid-19 in the city, the designated Covid hospitals have been able to keep some margin for admitting more serious patients. But the sudden surge has reduced that margin considerably.
As of Saturday, Gurugram had more than 450 active cases and at least 321 beds (not counting those in Narayana and Columbia Asia hospitals, which did not share the numbers). The three Covid-19 hospitals - ESIC, Civil and SGT - collectively have 205 beds and the rest are in six private hospitals. Only 64 beds are unoccupied - 15 in ESIC, 5 in Civil, 20 in SGT, 10 in Signature, six in W Pratiksha and eight in Park. Of the hospitals that shared hospital bed information, only Medeor has all 50 beds occupied.
But given the surge in cases in Gurugram, the state government on Friday sent senior health officials to the city to monitor and plan for the days to come and prepare for a scenario where many more will require hospitalisation. "Private hospitals in the city have been asked to not refuse any Covid-19 patient," a health department official said.
On the contingency plan, besides allowing patients to quarantine themselves at home or hotel rooms, are two things - 1,000 additional beds on standby in nine private hospitals and paid isolation facilities (only for asymptomatic patients) in 12 hotels. "With the lockdown being gradually eased, we expect the number of cases to go up. So our focus is on having more isolation facilities in the city. We are also planning on increasing the number of beds for critical Covid-19 patients," said Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary (health).