4,500 beds occupied by COVID patients in Delhi hospitals, 33 pc by people from outside

New Delhi, September 4

Of the over 14,000 beds for COVID-19 patients at various hospitals in Delhi, around 4,500 have been occupied by people, 33 per cent of whom are from outside the city, according to government sources.

As per the latest health bulletin issued by the Delhi Health Department on Thursday, the total occupancy rate of beds at COVID-19 hospitals stands at 31 per cent.

“Of the 14,140 total beds, 4,477 are occupied and 9,663 are vacant,” it said.

“Close to 70 per cent of beds in Delhi hospitals are still vacant. Out of 14,000 beds, around 4,500 are occupied of which 1,500 (33 per cent) are occupied by those patients Who are from outside Delhi,” a government source said.

Also read: Last week of August saw 35 pc hike in coronavirus cases over previous week: Delhi Health Department

Only three out of the 131 COVID-19 hospitals (private and government-run) were fully occupied, he said.

“There’s no shortage of beds right now. But the increasing number of patients from outside Delhi coming to city hospitals for treatment is a cause of concern,” the source said.

The ICU beds at a few top private hospitals namely Max Hospital Saket; Max Hospital, Patparganj; Indraprastha Apollo Hospital; Fortis Hospital and Vasant Kunj were all occupied, the source said, adding that over 70 per cent of these patients were from places outside Delhi.

Delhi has been seeing a surge in fresh COVID-19 cases in the last several days and on Thursday, the city recorded 2,737 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike here in 67 days, taking the tally to over 1.82 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 4,500.

This was the third successive day in September when over 2,000 fresh COVID-19 cases have been reported in a day.

On September 2, the daily cases count was 2,509 and on September 1, the count stood at 2,312.

The active cases tally on Thursday rose to 17,692 from 16,502 the previous day.

Dr BL Sherwal, director, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 facility, said a large number of patients are now coming to Delhi after seeing the COVID-19 management by the city government, especially in July.

“Many of the new patients admitted at our hospital are from the neighbouring cities,” he said.

On June 23, the national capital had reported the highest single-day spike of 3,947 COVID-19 cases, till date.

In June, when the city was seeing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said: “Providing treatment for people coming from all over the country during a pandemic is a big challenge.”

He had said the move to reserve beds for city-dwellers was taken based on suggestions of Delhiites. However, Lt Governor Anil Baijal had later overruled the decision, saying no one should be denied treatment on the grounds of not being a resident of Delhi.

The positivity rate on Thursday stood at 8.3 per cent while the recovery rate was over 87 per cent, as per the bulletin.

Also, on Thursday, the number of containment zones jumped to 922 from 894 the previous day, it said. As many as 3,005 beds in the COVID care centres were occupied by persons under quarantine, including travellers who have returned by the Vande Bharat Mission and bubble flights, the bulletin said.

According to the bulletin, 1,60,114 patients have recovered, been discharged or migrated so far.

The number of people in home isolation stands at 9,135.

According to the data available with the Delhi Health Department till August 30, BLK Hospital had 98 admitted patients, out of whom around 47 were from Delhi and 51 patients from other states. Similarly, Apollo Hospital here had around 158 admitted patients out of whom 47 were from Delhi and 111 from other states. Max hospital at Saket in south Delhi had around 175 COVID-19 patients out of whom 80 patients were from Delhi and 95 from outside the city. PTI