Shortage of Hospital Beds leads Delhi to Equip 500 Railway Coaches with Hospital Facilities

In the meeting it was decided  to ramp up the testing, contact mapping would be improved, 500 railway coaches would be stationed in Delhi to argument the bed availability by around 8000. Delhi is the third-most affected state in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. On Saturday 2,134 new coronavirus diseases were added, taking its total count to 38, 958 including 22,742 active cases and 1,271 fatalities. It is for the third successive day in Delhi that over 2,000 cases were reported in a single day.

Just two days after the Supreme Court pulled up the Delhi government, on Sunday Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting regarding the Covid-19 situation in Delhi, which has been seeing a huge spike in the number of cases. The meeting was attended by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other officials of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).

Amit Shah also chaired another meeting with top functionaries of Delhi’s three municipal bodies. He has also convened a meeting of all the political parties of Delhi for which the BJP, Congress, AAP, and BSP had been invited.

The meeting’s agenda focussed on the testing and advised that it would be tripled. 

Railway coaches to provide additional beds

 After the meeting, Shah announced details of the meeting on Twitter in a series of tweets in Hindi. He tweeted “In view of the shortage of beds for coronavirus patients in Delhi, the Central Modi government has decided to immediately send 500 railway coaches to the Delhi government. These coaches will not only provide 8,000 extra beds but will also be equipped with all the facilities to fight the Covid-19 infection.” 

As the cases are expected to rise at the end of June, bed requirements will rise by 15000 so the state government has decided to convert sprawling campus of Radha Soami Satsang Beas on Delhi-Gurugram border into a 10,000-bed hospital, with 200 enclosures of 50 beds each. 

Testing to be increased

 Shah mentioned in his tweet that “Also, after a few days the testing will start at every polling station in the containment zones.”

As per the recent submission by the state government in Delhi High Court, the combined daily testing capacity of 40 labs, 17 public and 23 private, is 8,600 per day. He also assured that the Central government will aid in providing oxygen cylinders, ventilators, pulse oximeters, and other essential equipment in adequate quantity to the Delhi government. Effective contact mapping

Shah said in a series of tweets-“For effective contact mapping Health care workers will go door to door in the containment zone, for health survey of every citizen and its results will be out in a week. Also for effective monitoring, all the people living in the containment zones will be asked to download the Aarogya Setu app.

Committee formed for suggestions

It was mentioned that a committee has been formed under the chairmanship of VK Paul, a member of NITI Aayog. The committee would provide suggestions on how to make the availability of 60% beds in private hospitals at lower rates and how to fix rates for testing and treatment of coronavirus. The report will be submitted by the committee on Monday.

Despite all this, Amit Shah has also ordered the immediate transfer of four IAS officers to the Delhi government and attachment of another two from the Centre. He further informed that Centre has decided to form a panel of senior doctors at AIIMS to provide telephonic guidance to smaller hospitals on Covid-19. The helpline number will be released by Monday to help fight against the coronavirus disease volunteers from Scout Guides, NCC, NSS, and other organizations will persuade. 

Also, a set of detailed guidelines for conducting the last rituals of those who died due to Covid-19 will be issued by the government, which will bring down the waiting period.

While on Saturday the state government decided to declare small and medium multi-speciality nursing homes having 10 to 49 beds as “COVID nursing homes” as it would increase bed strength by 5000 in Delhi. 

In Gurugram, Haryana, the administration has decided to build temporary quarantine centres in residential societies and upscale condominiums. Resident Welfare Associations have been asked to submit lists of common places like community centres, gyms, spa centres or clubs to develop as makeshift quarantine centres. Authorities in Gurugram believe that next one month is very crucial as chances of spreading Covid-19 are very high.

Over to you

With comprehensive door to door tests, testing would be ramped up to three times the current rate within a week. The Delhi government plans to soon turn banquet halls and hotels into temporary hospitals, in order to add 20,000 beds over the next few weeks.