Delhi's Commonwealth Games Village, Schools To Become Covid Facilities

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said the Commonwealth Games Village and some schools are being turned into facilities for Covid patients and 6,000 new beds are expected in the coming days. The government is desperately trying to scale up the number of available beds as the national capital struggles to cope with an exponential rise in Covid cases.

Beds, oxygen and essential drugs are in short supply as Delhi logged an unprecedented 24,000 new cases over 24 hours on Saturday evening.

At hospitals, people are struggling for beds as more than 90 per cent of beds with ventilators in Intensive Care Units are occupied. People who have tried to obtain oxygen cylinders from private suppliers say they are being told that it is out of stock.

The positivity rate of the disease in Delhi 30 per cent and only 100 beds in Intensive Care Units are left in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal told the media after a cabinet meeting this morning.

He said he has spoken with Union home minister Amit Shah and health minster Dr Harsh Vardhan. "I have said that we need more oxygen and beds. Over 6,000 oxygen beds expected in the coming days," he added.

"In Delhi, the central government has a total of 10,000 beds, of which only around 1,800 beds are for coronavirus patients. We request that at least 7,000 beds be made available for them," he said.

"In the next two-three days, we will make arrangements for 6,000 beds with oxygen facilities. We are providing high flow oxygen in many hospitals," Mr Kejriwal added.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has flagged a coming crisis in oxygen supply, saying hospitals have stock left for a very limited period of time. The Delhi government, he said, has appealed to the Centre to supply more medical oxygen.

Over the weekend, Delhi joined Mumbai and several other cities in shutting down all but essential services. Earlier this week, night curfew was announced in Delhi but these measures have failed to stem the tide, with the number of fresh cases mounting every passing day.

For the last four days, the country has been logging 2 lakh-plus fresh cases of Covid daily -- having now three times the daily cases of the United States, the world's worst-hit nation.