Delhi government has instructed 33 big private hospitals in the national capital to reserve 80 per cent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients amid resurgence of corona cases leading to shortage of beds at some facilities, said Health Minister Satyendar Jain recently.

After a lull of around three weeks in July, the national capital again saw spike in number of cases from the last week of August. The city has been recording more than 4,000 cases daily now.

“Yesterday, we instructed 33 private hospitals to reserve 80 per cent of their ICU beds for coronavirus patients. This has been done since issues were being faced with regards to ICU beds in some private hospitals. I also held a video conference over this and an order has been issued in this regard,” he was quoted saying by a PTI report.

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“We have also instructed hospitals to increase bed strength by 30 per cent for coronavirus patients, in case they want to. More than 50 per cent beds are available in hospitals. Out of the total 14,372 beds available for COVID-19 patients, 7,938 are vacant, according to live status on Delhi Corona app,” he added.

The Health Minister ruled out any possibility of lockdown to combat the situation.

“The time for enforcing a lockdown has ended. We have gained enough experience through the lockdown and know that wearing masks is an effective way to fight the infection. We are creating awareness to wear masks,” he said. Jain said the national capital has ramped up testing, which is why an increase in cases is being observed and stressed that it will help in containing and isolating cases of the infection. On Saturday, over 60,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted.

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