High Court asks AAP govt to reserve 80% ICU Beds for COVID patients in Delhi hospitals

New Delhi: The High Court on Thursday (November 12) allowed the Arvind Kejriwal government to reserve 80 percent beds in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of 33 private hospitals for Covid patients in the wake of the rising number of coronavirus cases.  The High Court said, "The situation is dynamic in Delhi. The AAP government must keep its finger on pulse to be able to cope with the situation." 

The availability of ICU beds with ventilator support in the capital has reportedly reached an all-time low, with only 13 percent beds available in private and government hospitals combined. Most of these hospitals have reached maximum occupancy, while several of these merely have a single bed available for patients that needed ICU and ventilator support, according to a news channel report.

The total number of ICU beds with ventilators currently has around 1,283 beds, of which 1,119 are occupied. Only 164 beds are vacant, it said.

The report further said that out of the 809 ICU beds with ventilator support in the government hospitals, only 99 are vacant, and of these 474 ICU beds with ventilators in private hospitals, only 65 are vacant.

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The Delhi government today challenged an earlier court order of freeze on the government's decision to reserve 80 per cent ICU beds for Covid patients.  

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad admitted the Delhi government's appeal to allow reservation of 80 per cent of ICU beds for COVID-19 patients in 33 private hospitals for at least 15 days.

The list of major hospitals which have no vacancy for ICU With Ventilators include GTB Hospital, Deendayal Upadhyay Hospital, Max Shalimar, Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Indraprastha Apollo, Fortis Vasant Kunj, and Fortis Escorts hospital.

Notably, Delhi recorded its biggest single-day jump of 8,593 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday that took its infection tally to over 4.59 lakh, while 85 new fatalities pushed the national capital's death toll to 7,228, according to the latest health department bulletin.

The total number of cases in the capital stands at 4,59,975. These fresh cases came out of 64,121 tests, including 19,304 RT-PCR tests, conducted the previous day (Tuesday). The city's positivity rate stood at 13.4 per cent, the bulletin said.

Delhi's previous highest single-day spike of 7,830 cases was recorded on Tuesday, recording 83 deaths. The city also reported 85 fatalities on Wednesday pushing the death toll to 7,228. Earlier on June 16, a higher number of deaths recorded was 93. 

The Delhi government is currently relying on tests to control the numbers, conducting RT-PCR tests in markets, shops, and restaurants on both shopkeepers and customers.