Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi, the All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS) announced suspension of the Outpatient Department (OPD) admissions in general and private wards for two weeks starting Wednesday.
The decision was taken to reserve beds for seriously ill, emergency/semi-emergency COVID-19 patients in light of the spike in virus infections in the past week.
As the AIIMS Trauma Centre has been converted into a dedicated Covid-19 facility, Medical superintendent Dr DK Sharma said, “the decision was taken in view of the uptick in Covid-19 cases and to accommodate trauma emergencies.”
Emergency and semi-emergency patients requiring hospitalisation or those advised hospitalisation will continue to be admitted along with Employees Health Scheme patients, AIIMS said in a statement.
The decision to temporarily halt the OPD services for two weeks will be reviewed later.
The city saw 2,313 cases on Tuesday. The number of cases over the past few days has gone from an average of 1,200 to around 1,800 per day and the number of hospital beds occupied has gone up as well.
The positivity rate, which in the beginning of August was around 6 per cent, is over 9 per cent at present. The compounded daily growth rate over the past week has also risen to over 1 per cent against 0.69 per cent in mid-August.