Delhi's CWG Stadium Converted Into 600-Bed COVID-19 Facility As Govt Strives To Combat Shortage
A 500-bed COVID-19 care facility is being readied by the Delhi government at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village here, and it is likely to accept patients from Monday, officials said.
As the COVID-19 cases in Delhi is set to cross the 90,000 mark the national capital is in desperate need of more hospital beds. With this in mind, a temporary COVID-19 care facility is being readied by the Delhi government at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village in the national capital that can accommodate up to 600 beds.
AFP
The facility, that is being set up by the government and Doctors For You, a non-profit organisation, is likely to accept patients from Monday. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia visited the newly-built facility on Wednesday to review preparations.
AFP
"Around 500 beds have been installed at this COVID-19 care centre here. It will be attached to the LNJP Hospital," the CM said. The facility will have separate wards for men and women, and stay-in facilities will be provided to doctors and nurses, he said. "A massive expansion of the number of COVID-19 beds is underway in Delhi. The number of cases in Delhi is now decreasing (comparatively) and the situation seems to be getting under control," Kejriwal said.
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¡ª Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 1, 2020
"I hope and pray that the facilities created and the beds installed across the city are not required, but even if they are, we are not lacking in our efforts. In case there is a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, we are ready to deal with it," he said.
Earlier, a 10,000 beds temporary facility, said to the world's largest COVID-19 hospital was set up in the national capital. The facility at the Radha Soami Satsang campus was readied in just 10 days.
This comes amid reports that major hospitals like AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia, Apollo and Max at Patparganj and Saket are running out of ventilator beds in ICUs. According to real-time data shared by the government¡¯s Delhi Corona app, the capital has 744 ICU beds with ventilator support, excluding 50 such beds at AIIMS-Jhajjar. Of these, 569 (76%) beds were occupied.
AFP
The Delhi govt has also issued an order to all state-run hospitals to rework their existing bed capacities in a way to increase the number of ventilator beds over and above the existing beds.
Earlier this month the Delhi government had said that there could be 5.5 lakh COVID-19 cases in the national capital by the end of July. "Till July 15, the cases would mount to 2.5 lakh and we would require 33,000 beds and till July 31, there will be 5.5 lakh cases and we would need 80,000 beds," Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had said.
AFP
Many banquet halls are being acquired in Delhi and more centres like the one at CWG village will be established in the coming days.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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