Reserve at least 40% of beds for COVID patients, Delhi govt tells private hospitals

The Delhi government on Tuesday directed all private hospitals and nursing homes with 50 beds or more to reserve at least 40 percent of their total bed capacity for COVID patients, in the wake of an uptick in cases in the last few days due to the Omicron variant. The positivity rate has exponentially increased from 2.44 percent on 31 December, 2021, to more than eight percent on Tuesday, the government said in an order. It also said that the transmissibility of the variant is very high and the number of Omicron positive cases in the community are rising exponentially. “Therefore, the keepers of all private hospitals/nursing homes having total bed capacity of 50 beds or more are directed to reserve at least 40 percent of their total bed capacity (i.e. 40 percent of ward bed capacity and 40 percent of lCU bed capacity) for Covid patients,” read the order issued by the Nursing Home Cell of the Delhi Directorate General of Health Services. Meanwhile, a large number of doctors and paramedics in Delhi are turning out to be COVID positive which might put the city’s health infrastructure under severe strain, experts said on Tuesday. At least 50 doctors have tested Covid positive at AIIMS in Delhi while 26 have been diagnosed with the disease at the Safdarjung Hospital, officials said.   Forty-five healthcare workers, including 38 doctors, have contracted Covid at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the last few days, according to an official. At the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital at least 30 doctors have contracted Covid while at the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Hospital it is seven, sources said.   Even though the Delhi government repeatedly stressed that most cases this time would be mild or asymptomatic not requiring hospitalisation, data shows an uptick in the number of Covid patients in hospitals and those requiring oxygen and ventilator support. Experts said that since the highly transmissible Omicron variant is going to infect people in a never-seen-before number, those requiring medical care in hospitals will also be proportionate. With inputs from PTI