With Covid cases remaining low in the city even after removal of restrictions and opening of schools and colleges, the Delhi government has started cutting down on the number of beds earmarked for such patients. The government has reduced 2,735 hospital beds and 1,550 ICU beds across eleven of its hospitals, according to an order by Deputy Secretary (Health) Ajay Bisht.
The order states, “In view of decrease in positivity rate of Covid-19 cases in Delhi, the numbers of Covid-19 beds / Covid-19 ICU beds … are hereby de-escalated with immediate effect.” Beds at step-down health centres were reduced by 1,700 from the 2,800 beds created across eight centres during the surge, it said.
Bed strength was increased to 5,650 in Delhi government hospitals at the peak of the Covid surge in January this year and private hospitals were asked to reserve 40% of their total beds for Covid patients during the first week of that month. The number of beds across hospitals was increased to over 12,000 by January second week and to nearly 14,000 by January end by which time the cases had already started going down.
