Hunkering down: Vaccines 24x7, Covid-19 beds increased in hosps
New Delhi: As the Delhi government is in the middle of requesting the Centre to increase vaccination centres in the city, the Health Department on Monday went on overdrive, ordering 24-hour vaccinations in all Delhi government hospitals, increasing COVID-19 bed strength by over 1,500 in government hospitals, and ordering more reservations in private hospitals.
As per the latest instructions, all hospitals will have to keep running one-third of their vaccination sites at all times, apart from all sites functioning normally during the day from Tuesday onwards.
In the order, Deputy Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) S Sunil stated: "In order to accelerate the pace of COVID vaccination, it has been decided that the timings of functioning of the COVID vaccination Centres should be further increased. It is hereby ordered that with effect from April 06, 2021, 1/3rd of the vaccination sites in all the Delhi Government hospitals will also function from 09:00 pm to 09:00 am. All the facilities will ensure deployment of adequate manpower at these sites to ensure smooth functioning of the vaccination sites."
Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of Lok Nayak Hospital said: "At LNJP we already have one vaccination site that is kept functional 24/7. We have enough staff and shall not have any problems in complying with this order (to run one-third of all vaccination sites continuously). We have more than 1,000 doctors and more than 1,500 nurses. This is a good step, especially for those who have to work during the day and are unable to get vaccinated. They can now get the vaccine at night."
In another order, the number of COVID-19 reserved beds in Delhi government hospitals were increased further. Accordingly, Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital, which currently does not have any reserved beds, will have to reserve 500 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. GTB hospital is the second-largest hospital under the Delhi government with over 1,500 beds.
Notably, LNJP hospital, the largest under Delhi government with over 2,000 beds has been asked to reserve 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients from the previous 300. Of these, 200 are ICU beds with a ventilator (previously 50 such beds were reserved).
Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital will also have to double its reserved beds. Previously 50 beds, of which 16 were ICU beds with a ventilator facility, had been reserved for COVID-19 patients. As per this order, that number will now jump
to 100 and 30 respectively. Burari hospital will also increase its ICU bed (with ventilator) reservation from 10 previously to 30 now.
In addition to this, the Delhi government has also ordered 54 large private hospitals in the Capital with a bed strength of over 100 to reserve at least 30 per cent of their ICU beds or double the occupancy as on April 5, whichever is higher for COVID-19 patients. The order also directed these hospitals to reserve 30 per cent of their regular ward capacity or double the occupancy on April 5, whichever is higher, for Covid patients.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Satyendar Jain insisted that his government is taking all appropriate steps to deal with the fresh surge. He said testing has been ramped up, genome tracing is underway and that micro-containment zones are being created in areas with two or three cases.
