NEW DELHI: The nine banquet halls that were attached with Covid-designated hospitals towards the end of June in anticipation of the pandemic taking a worse turn might get delinked by Delhi government soon.
The banquet halls in North, North West, West, South West, Central, New Delhi, North East, Shahdara, South and South East districts were linked with Lok Nayak Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, GTB Hospital and others to create 1,055 additional beds, which would have been used if the Covid situation worsened and overwhelmed the existing healthcare infrastructure.
Less than 1,000 cases have been reported on several days in the last fortnight and the number of deaths has also fallen from the high of 100 to 18. Currently, there are over 14,000 Covid beds in government and private hospitals of which around 10,000 are vacant. Of the 10,000 beds at Covid care centres, nearly 6,000 are vacant. Officials said the existing beds were enough in the current scenario.
The delinking of banquet halls is likely to be discussed in the next meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority. The owners had raised this demand because the banquet halls had been lying unused.
Shehnai banquet hall in Central district was the first to get converted into a Covid facility of 100 beds. It was attached to Lok Nayak Hospital. “The banquet hall started receiving patients towards the end of June. The number went up to around 60 patients. As the number of patients arriving at Lok Nayak started decreasing, the banquet hall became vacant by the middle of July,” said Dr Rajat Jain of Doctors For You, the NGO tasked to run the Covid facility.
The banquet halls in North, North West, West, South West, Central, New Delhi, North East, Shahdara, South and South East districts were linked with Lok Nayak Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, GTB Hospital and others to create 1,055 additional beds, which would have been used if the Covid situation worsened and overwhelmed the existing healthcare infrastructure.
Less than 1,000 cases have been reported on several days in the last fortnight and the number of deaths has also fallen from the high of 100 to 18. Currently, there are over 14,000 Covid beds in government and private hospitals of which around 10,000 are vacant. Of the 10,000 beds at Covid care centres, nearly 6,000 are vacant. Officials said the existing beds were enough in the current scenario.
The delinking of banquet halls is likely to be discussed in the next meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority. The owners had raised this demand because the banquet halls had been lying unused.
Shehnai banquet hall in Central district was the first to get converted into a Covid facility of 100 beds. It was attached to Lok Nayak Hospital. “The banquet hall started receiving patients towards the end of June. The number went up to around 60 patients. As the number of patients arriving at Lok Nayak started decreasing, the banquet hall became vacant by the middle of July,” said Dr Rajat Jain of Doctors For You, the NGO tasked to run the Covid facility.
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