‘Enough beds available for Covid patients’: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain reassures residents

NEW DELHI:  With the national capital witnessing a steep rise in daily number of Covid-19 cases, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that sufficient number of beds are available to handle the patient count.

“At present, 40 per cent of beds are occupied in the national capital. We still have around 9,500 beds available in hospitals,” he said.

On Sunday, Delhi recorded 5664 cases of coronavirus, the fifth consecutive day with positive reports crossing the 5,000-mark. The positivity rate was recorded at 12.69 per cent. At present, the city has got more than 34,000 active Covid cases, of which, over 20,000 cases are under home isolation.

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South District Magistrate BM Mishra said that there are currently 1,000 Covid-19 patients admitted at the Sardar Patel Covid Centre in Chattarpur — the largest set up which hold over 10,000 patients.

However, ICU beds in city hospitals are running short, as shown in the Delhi government’s Corona App. Out of 794 ICU beds with ventilators, 573 are occupied which accounts for 72 per cent of the total capacity. Hospitals such as Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia, Deep Chand Bandhu have less than 5 ventilator beds available. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Batra, Max Shalimar and Patparjang, Maharaja Agrasen, Apollo Indraprastha and few other hospitals are already out of ventilator beds.

Addressing the issue of the recent spike cases, Jain on Sunday said that ‘aggressive contact tracing’ was the primary reason for the sudden increase in numbers. “If a person tests positive then his entire family and the people in contact have to be tested, thus more cases. Earlier six-seven contacts of a positive person were traced, now this number has crossed 15,” Jain said. According to him it is this style of aggressive contact tracing which has resulted in the sudden spike of Covid cases.

DTC, Cluster buses resume services with full capacity

DTC and Cluster buses resumed plying with full seating capacity on Sunday, with Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot urging travellers to wear masks and observe Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.

In a tweet, the DTC said intra-state movement of buses has been permitted with full seating capacity on a trial basis, subject to the condition that no passenger will travel standing and without a mask.

Owing to closure of offices, the number of passengers on Sunday was relatively low.