COVID-19: Delhi records 1,904 new cases, highest since December last year

With a steady increase in COVID-19 cases in capital city Delhi, the union territoty on Monday reported 1,904 new casesand six more fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload and death toll to 659,619 and 11,012 respectively, according to the health department’s bulletin. Monday’s figures have been the highest in more than three months. The last time the cases went over the 1,900 mark was on December 12 last year, when 1,935 people had tested positive for Covid-19.

While, 1,411 patients who recovered from the virus today, the total recoveries so far in the national capital have climbed to 640,575 while the active cases are above 8,000.

With a sudden rise in cases, the capital city seems unprepared as some private hospitals have started running out of beds in the Intensive Care Unit for Covid patients. According to the Delhi government's Corona app, four of the five key hospitals in the city have no bed with ventilators available in the Intensive Care Unit.

As per a report, all eight ICU beds are occupied in the Holy Family hospital in Okhla. Fortis hospital and Max hospital in Shalimar Bagh and the Indian Spinal Injury Centre in Vasant Kunj have no available beds in the ICU either. Only one bed is available in Sir Gangaram Hospital.

However, beds with ventilators are available at the government-run hospitals. Of the 5,765 beds earmarked for Covid patients, 4,301 are vacant. Of the total 785 ICU beds with ventilators, 544 are vacant and 887 of the 1,210 ICU beds without ventilators are available too.

Hospitals are now making preparations to meet a surge.

"We are making appropriate arrangements with rise in cases, the infrastructure is being strengthened," said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, the Group director of Max Hospitals.

Amid a spike in cases, the government of Delhi has urged people to maintain Covid appropriate behavior to avoid the situation Delhi was in last year when almost all the hospitals had run out of crucial healthcare infrastructure as the infection surged in November.