500-bed Covid care centre to convert into oxygen facility centre

After directions from Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ramp up Delhi's medical infrastructure amid surge in Covid-19 cases, a 500-bed Covid care centre at Chhatarpur will be converted into a centre with oxygen facility by weekend.

A group of 75 doctors and 251 paramedics from Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have reached the national capital and have reported to duty as an additional central support to the Delhi government to tame the rising Covid-19 infections that have pushed the hospitals here to their brink.

The move comes four days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah took stock of Covid-19 situation in the city in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Out of 75 doctors and 251 paramedics, 50 doctors and 175 paramedics will be deployed at Chhatarpur. The Delhi government has also asked Shakur Basti Covid care centre to refer patients who require critical care to Chhatarpur.

Following Home Ministry's directive, about 150 ICU beds have been added in Delhi in the last three to further ramp up the current capacity of 3,652 ICU beds. Apart from this, train coaches with 800 beds at Shakur Basti station will also made functional and doctors and paramedics from CAPF will man these coaches.

10 multi-disciplinary teams constituted by MHA will visit more than 100 private hospitals in Delhi to assess bed utilisation, testing capacity and to identify the need of extra ICU beds.

MHA has also advised Haryana and UP governments to hold survey of private hospitals in their NCR districts on the lines of Delhi.

As the Union Home Ministry works on to increase the RT-PCR tests to 60,000 tests per day in Delhi by November end, around 28,708 RT-PCR tests were conducted here on Novmber 18.