Delhi government cuts COVID bed capacity in seven hospitals as cases drop

NEW DELHI:  With cases showing a downwards trend, the Delhi government has decided to reduce the number of beds allotted for COVID patient services in seven state-run hospitals in the national capital.

The Delhi government has now allowed normal healthcare services in 2,556 beds in seven government-run hospitals including Lok Nayak, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, and GTB hospitals which were earlier reserved for COVID-19 treatment, as per an official order.

Orders have been issued to Delhi hospitals, to de-escalate the number of covid dedicated beds with immediate effect.

This has been done in light of the decreasing cases of covid-19 in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/oao6EG3zsh

— Satyendar Jain (@SatyendarJain) December 31, 2020

Before this order, a total of 4,696 beds in these seven hospitals were reserved for COVID-19 treatment and it has now been reduced to 2,140, according to the order issued on Thursday. The government has also allowed 108 private hospitals including Akash Healthcare in Dwarka, BLK Hospital in Pusa Road, Batra Hospital in Tughlakabad, to reduce their bed strength for COVID patients, as per a separate order.

However, five private hospitals will continue to run as dedicated COVID facilities - Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital in Saket, Fotis Super Speciality Hospital in Vasant Kunj, Saroj Super Speciality Hospital in Rohini, Maha Durga Charitable Trust Hospital in Model Town, and Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital in Pusa Road.

"Orders have been issued to Delhi hospitals to de-escalate the number of COVID dedicated beds with immediate effect.  This has been done in light of the decreasing cases of COVID-19 in Delhi," Health Minister Satyendar Jain said in a tweet.

Jain, earlier on Thursday, said that the positivity rate in the has been decreasing continuously and the bed occupancy levels in hospitals have also reduced considerably. 

"Around 85,000 tests were conducted on Wednesday and the positivity rate has fallen to 0.8 per cent implying that in the 1,000 tests conducted; only 8 were found symptomatic. It has improved a lot as compared to the 15.26 per cent positivity rate on November 7. The bed occupancy in hospitals has reduced considerably. More than 85 per cent of beds are available," Jain said.

Some Covid care centres have been closed as they did not see any patients in a long time. The government has also decided to vacate the premises of the 500-bed COVID care centre in east Delhi's Commonwealth Games (CWG) village. Owing to the low patient turnout, the government is considering closing down some more such centres.

"COVID care centres did not see any patients for quite some time; therefore it did not make sense to keep them up and running. Delhi government is preparing 1,000 centres for the vaccine. We are completely ready with all the preparations from storage to roll out. We are only waiting for the vaccine to be made available," he said.