Second Covid wave: Delhi hospitals run short of ICU beds with ventilators

As Delhi witnesses another surge in coronavirus infections, several private hospitals and one government hospital in the city are left with no intensive care unit (ICU) beds with ventilators, which are extremely crucial for patients with severe disease.

All ICU beds with ventilators in the Central government's Northern Railway hospital are occupied. The condition is the same in the Holy Family Hospital in Okhla, the Fortis Hospital and the Max SS Hospital (both Shalimar Bagh), the Navjeevan Hospital in Pitampura, the Kalra Hospital in Kirti Nagar and the Fortis SS hospital in Vasant Kunj.

Other institutions which have run out of such beds also include the Indian Spinal Injury Centre in Vasant Kunj, the Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in Punjabi Bagh, the Sri Balaji Action Medical Insititute in Paschim Vihar, the Ayushman Hospital in Dwarka, and the Mool Chand Khairati Ram Hospital in Lajpat Nagar.

Besides this, 48 out of 76 private hospitals are running low on ICU beds with ventilators, with only one bed available in Sir Gangaram Hospital, showing that the city is unprepared to deal with a major surge at the moment.

Meanwhile, 536 Covid-19 ICU beds with ventilators out of 785, 880 ICU beds without ventilators out of 1,213 and 4,305 normal Covid-19 beds out of 5,777 are available, as per the latest data from Delhi government's mobile app on Covid-related information.

According to the 'Delhi Corona' application, 31.8 per cent of the ICU beds with ventilators are occupied across the city, while 27 per cent of ICU beds without ventilators are filled. On the brighter side, only 25 per cent of normal Covid-19 beds are in use.

The data was per the Nodal Officers of each dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, as last updated at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Delhi recorded 1,904 fresh cases and six deaths on Monday. With this, the tally of Covid-19 cases in the national capital has reached over 6.59 lakh, while the death toll mounted to 11,012. With the city seeing over 1,000 cases daily for the past few days, health experts have issued warnings about resurgence of the illness.

The city has been witnessing a marginal rise in the number of fatalities due to Covid-19 over the last few days, a direct result of the surge in daily cases. While the city had reported 58 deaths in February, over 100 have died so far this month.

The second wave of coronavirus in India is spreading rapidly and is expected to get worse. On Monday morning, India reported 68,020 new cases in the last 24 hours, registering an increase in cases for the 19th day in a row.

--IANS

aka/vd