Dengue: Delhi govt orders 600 beds for 3 hospitals

New Delhi: Initiating wider measures to handle the rising number of dengue cases here, Delhi government today tapped three hospitals which are not yet fully functional and directed that 600 new beds be set up at these for fever and vector-borne disease patients.

The three hospitals are located in the Janakpuri, Ashok Vihar and Tahirpur areas.

According to Delhi government, these hospitals have no bed capacity and were just providing basic health services on their premises.

"Health Minister Satyendra Jain recently directed that 1,000 new beds be bought to accommodate dengue patients at government hospitals.

"These new beds are part of the 1,000 units mentioned in the health minister's order. Two hundred new beds will be set up at each of the three hospitals, which are nearing completion, for fever and dengue patients," said a senior government official.

Meanwhile, three more persons succumbed to the disease today, taking the dengue toll to 14 in Delhi even as hospitals here struggled to deal with the rush of patients down with the mosquito-borne fever and Delhi government directed all medical institutions to urgently increase bed capacity and employ more doctors and nurses.

A 41-year-old woman died of dengue at Moolchand Hospital while a 14-year-old boy and a seven-year-old boy succumbed to the disease, respectively, at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital and BL Kapur Hospital.