Delhi to add 5,000 more beds for COVID-19 patients : CM

The Delhi government has ordered all nursing homes in the National Capital Territory having bed strength of 10 to 49 beds to exclusively treat coronavirus cases. This decision has been taken in order to avoid intermingling of COVID and non-COVID patients in small and medium multispecialty nursing homes and also to augment the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.

New Delhi: In order to prevent intermingling of COVID-19 patients with non-COVID-19 patients and to increase the bed capacity in view of potential growth in cases in the National Capital, the Delhi government has ordered all nursing homes in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi having bed strength of 10 to 49 beds to exclusively treat coronavirus cases.

"In order to avoid intermingling of COVID and non-COVID patients in small and medium multispecialty nursing homes (10 bedded to 49 bedded) and also to augment the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, all nursing homes in NCT having bed strength of 10 beds or more up to 49 beds are declared as COVID nursing homes," read an order from the Delhi government.

Only standalone exclusives Eye Centres, ENT Centers, Dialysis Centres, Maternity Homes and IVF Centres are presently exempted.

Read:Delhi CM urges doctors to register with govt to offer free healthcare advice over phone

"All such nursing homes (10 bedded to 49 bedded) are required to make their COVID beds functional within three days of the issue of the order failing which it would be treated as violation of Clause 14.1 of the Schedule appended to Rule 14 of Delhi.

Nursing Homes Registration (Amendment) Rules, 2011 and action, as deemed fit, would be initiated against the defaulter nursing home," the order said.

The Delhi government said, in order to increase the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, 117 nursing homes/private hospitals having bed strength of 50 beds or more were directed to reserve/ earmark at least 20 percent of their total bed strength for COVID-19 patients vide Order dated May 24.

20 thousand new beds to be built in hotels, banquet halls and nursing homes

Kejriwal has also appealed to doctors for voluntarily joining Delhi government's tele-medicine helpline as people of Delhi need them in this difficult time.

The Delhi government added, corona patients will also be treated at the six five-star hotels in the capital.

These include Pullman Hotel & Resort at Indira Gandhi Airport, Hotel Crowne Plaza at Okhla, Hotel Surya at New Friends Colony, Hotel Siddharth at Rajendra Place, Hotel Jitesh at Pusa Road and Hotel Sheraton at Saket.

These five-star hotels have been linked with Delhi's Apollo, Batra, Max, Gangaram, and BL Kapoor hospitals.

The five-star hotels will provide rooms for treatment of corona patients besides facilities such as housekeeping, food and disinfecting the premise

"The occupancy of the beds earmarked for COVID patients is displayed on a real-time basis in the Delhi Corona App. More than 70 per cent COVID beds in the private sector are already occupied. Further, it is projected that there would be a requirement of more than 15000 COVID beds till June 30, 2020 and by the end of the first fortnight of July 2020 the requirement would further swell up to more than 33000 COVID beds," the order read.

ANI