Ggm adds 5 COVID-19 deaths as admin ramps up O2 bed-capacity

Gurugram: Worried over increasing cases, the administration in Gurugram has now provided to increase the capacity of COVID-19 beds with oxygen in the city to 2,632 from 1,975 across the 42 small and large COVID-19 hospitals here.

Significantly, among these healthcare facilities, only three are government hospitals and while more than 80 per cent of the city's COVID-19 patients are currently recovering under home isolation, a massive spike has resulted in increased hospitalisation. In addition to increasing the number of beds, the Haryana Government had recently ordered that 50 per cent of normal beds and 75 per cent of ICU beds in Gurugram hospitals be reserved for COVID-19 patients.

As of now, there are more than 6,200 patients in Gurugram that are still infected with the novel Coronavirus. Of this, it is estimated that there are over 300 patients that have been hospitalised for the contagious disease. The district has recorded more than 280 deaths so far from the virus.

"In addition to preventing new cases our objective is to also reduce the number of fatalities. In order to deal with this challenge, numbers of beds, especially ICU beds have been increased for COVID-19 patients," said a senior official from Gurugram Health Department.

However, the official health bulletin has shown at least three-four COVID-19 deaths being reported from the district every day for the last few weeks. On Sunday, Gurugram reported five more deaths due to the virus, taking the death toll to 288. Meanwhile, the district saw 479 new cases take the infection tally to 49,098. Officials also pointed out that 681 recoveries had been reported on Sunday, taking recoveries to above 42,500. The number of active cases in Gurugram now stands at 6,160, of which 5,757 are recovering under home isolation. The district has so far tested over 5.11 lakh COVID-19 tests since the outbreak.