A Medical staff in PPE kit helps a patient (non Covid) outside the emergency ward at Sant Parmanand Hospital in New Delhi

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government over a complaint filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken about Covid-19 mismanagement in Delhi, including non-availability of beds, inadequate number of tests, increasing deaths, delay in last rites of the deceased.

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Taking cognisance of the complaint filed by the Congress leader, NHRC issued notices to the Delhi government and the Union Health Ministry.

This comes hours after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Delhi will need 80,000 beds by July-end, but since people from other states are also allowed admission now, the actual requirement could be of over 1.5 lakh beds. The Chief Minister based his assessment on the trend of people from other states accounting for over 50 per cent occupancy in Delhi’s hospitals during non-Covid times. Delhi’s Covid dashboard shows it has 8,975 beds across state-run, Centre-run and private hospitals, of which 4,840 are currently occupied. Another 11,259 patients are in home isolation.

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the number of cases will soar to 5.5 lakh by the end of July.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court ordered the state government to ensure that there is “real-time updating” of data with regard to the availability of beds and ventilators, besides other services, by all hospitals in the capital on the recently launched Covid-19 dedicated mobile application. It also ordered the Centre as well as the state government to conduct “as much testing as possible,” with priority being given to those approaching on the recommendation of a doctor.

At LNGP hospital, New Delhi.

Delhi recorded 1,501 fresh coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the tally in the city to over 32,000, and the death toll due to the disease mounted to 984.