Delhi govt will set up ICU beds on a large scale at its three hospitals: Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said his government will set up ICU beds on a large scale at three state-run hospitals in wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.
Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said the new ICU beds will come up at Lok Nayak, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospitals.
The chief minister said Delhi currently has 3,500 additional Covid beds in hotels and more beds were being added by converting banquet halls into health facilities. "Considering the current number of Covid-19 patients we have enough beds for them. We now need to set up ICU beds for serious patients on a large scale," Kejriwal said.
He added that of 13,500 beds in city hospitals about 7,000 were still vacant, which he said, proves that there were not many serious patients who required hospitalisation.
He added that the Centre had given Delhi government permission to conduct Plasma therapy on 200 more patients at Lok Nayak Hospital. "Plasma therapy helps in preventing the condition of moderate patients from deteriorating," he said.
Kejriwal said almost all patients in home isolation have also been given pulse oximetres to regularly check oxygen level in thwor bodies.
Of 74,000 positive cases so far, 45,000 patients have already recovered.