Delhi: Close to 5,000 Covid-19 beds still vacant, says Satyendar Jain

NEW DELHI: Terming some reports about the shortage of beds as "misleading", health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said there was no shortage of Covid-19 beds in the capital.
"There are some misleading reports that there is a shortage of beds for corona patients in Delhi because a few private hospitals are refusing admissions. The truth is there is absolutely no shortage of beds in Delhi at the moment," Jain said. "In the past three days, more than 1,000 patients have been admitted to various hospitals. If beds were not available, this would have not been possible," he added.
"Even now we have close to 5,000 vacant beds. So clearly the issue is that some hospitals are not updating the data on Delhi corona app on time or misrepresenting the actual data when patients call," Jain said.
The government recently launched the app to give people information on the availability of Covid beds and ventilators in all hospitals. "We are making hospital bed data live and real time soon," said Jain.
Delhi government has decided to categorise all Covid beds into five categories. Ordinary hospital beds are marked level 0, while those with normal oxygen supply are at level 1. The beds equipped with oxygen supply at 10-15lts/minute are at level 2 and those with HFNO machine for oxygen supply at more than 50lts/min at level 3. All beds with a ventilator are at level 4. All medical directors have been asked to upgrade the beds in the hospitals as per the norm.