Medics attend to a suspected COVID-19 patient at a government hospital in New Delhi (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)
The national capital was one of the focus areas at the Cabinet Secretary’s meeting with state chief secretaries and health secretaries on Thursday, with projections for June based on available data showing that Delhi may already be facing a shortage of ICU beds, and is hitting critical thresholds with regard to ventilators and isolation beds with oxygen.
Based on current trends, the presentation made to the states projected that Delhi will see 91,419 cases by June 30.
The Cabinet Secretary red-flagged possible infrastructure shortages, noting that Delhi has been facing a shortfall of ICU beds since June 3, and will see a shortage of ventilators from June 12, and isolation beds with oxygen from June 25. Currently, Delhi has 3,368 isolation beds with oxygen, 582 ICU beds and 468 ventilators.
At the presentation made to the states, nine Delhi districts — Northwest, Central, Southeast, East, West, North, Shahdara, Southwest, Northeast — were listed among the top 46 where confirmation rate is more than 10%. Shahdara and Northeast Delhi are also among the top 69 districts which have a case fatality rate of more than 5%.
As per the Delhi government’s official Covid dashboard, however, on June 11 there were a total of 9,444 beds for Covid patients, of which 5,096 were occupied. The city, the dashboard indicates, has 584 ventilators, of which 318 are in use. On June 8, the Delhi health department told the L-G that there were 3,590 oxygen-supported beds, 582 ICU beds and 468 ventilators in dedicated Covid hospitals. The Delhi government Wednesday also asked all Covid-designated hospitals to make oxygen available for all beds for Covid patients.
Three states — Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana –have more than a 10% confirmation rate.