Delhi currently has 14,589 active cases (File)
New Delhi:
Private hospitals with more than 100 beds will have to reserve 30% of total normal and ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds for Covid patients, the Delhi government has ordered, amid concerns that the more rapid second wave of infections might overwhelm the national capital’s health infrastructure.
After this order, the number of reserved normal beds in the national capital’s 54 private hospitals with more than 100 beds, will increase to 4,422 from 1,844. The number of reserved ICU beds will increase to 1,357 from 638.
The Delhi government has directed the private hospitals to regularly update the occupancy of beds on the government-run portal.
The national capital’s daily coronavirus figures have been on the rise for the last few weeks. The city on Sunday reported over 4,000 cases after over four months. In the last 24 hours, it has reported 3, 548 new cases and 15 deaths because of Covid-19.
Because of the latest upsurge, the recovery rate has dropped to 96.22 percent. Delhi currently has 14,589 active cases. In the last 24 hours, 2,936 people were discharged.
On Monday, India, the second worst-hit country in the world, reported 1,03,558 new coronavirus cases, which is its highest-ever single-day count.
Delhi was among the top five states with the highest single-day counts. Maharashtra, which has consistently been reporting over 50,000 cases per day, tops the list.
The Centre has blamed “severe decline in compliance of Covid-appropriate behaviour primarily in terms of use of masks and maintaining ‘2 gaj ki doori’ (six-feet distance), pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field-level” for the nationwide upsurge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with the Chief Ministers of all states and union territories on April 8 to discuss the coronavirus situation. In the last such meeting, he had appealed to the leaders to not let the country reach its second Covid peak.