Delhi hospitals

jointly fight the Covid-19 pandemic. He called for a people’s movement for promoting the wearing of masks and ensuring social distancing and personal hygiene for the purpose. “The Centre has taken a decision and the L-G passed an order... There is no room for disagreements now. The decision of the L-G will be implemented in letter and spirit,” Kejriwal said at a digital press conference a day after he tested negative for Covid-19.

Later in the evening, he met home minister Amit Shah. “Met Sh Amit Shah, Honble HM. Discussed the situation on corona in Delhi in detail. He assured of all cooperation,” he said on Twitter.

Baijal on Monday also restored guidelines on who can be tested for Covid-19 in the Capital; the Delhi government had said only high-risk direct contacts of infected people would be tested if they were asymptomatic. The Delhi government’s orders on both testing and treatment created a huge controversy. On Wednesday, the National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the state government and the Union ministry of health for alleged mismanagement of the situation. The notices were prompted by a complaint made by Congress leader Ajay Maken.

Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, had on Monday, in a digital press briefing, attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over Baijal’s order and said the Centre must involve states in decision-making processes. He accused the BJP of pressurising the L-G into overturning their decisions.

Baijal is the government’s administrative head and reports to the President. He is the topmost authority of the Delhi disaster management agency, which is coordinating all matters related to the pandemic. On Tuesday, his office issued a statement saying the L-G had clarified to Sisodia that right to health is an integral part of the right to life under the Constitution of India. Baijal had said that rather than “discriminating between patients, the goal of the government should be to plan and prepare for adequate infrastructure”. In his Monday order, Baijal acknowledged that Covid-19 has spread in Delhi “in threatening proportion”.

Kejriwal said he will soon begin inspections to monitor the arrangements. “I will get started on this and go to stadiums, banquet halls and hotels to make arrangements. We will try everything, do whatever we can to ensure enough hospital beds.”

A committee, which has been constituted under the chairmanship of divisional commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar to explore the possibility of creating additional bed capacity, has so far suggested that Pragati Maidan and Talkatora indoor stadium be used as makeshift hospitals. On the basis of the current doubling rate of 12.6 days, the Delhi health department has projected that the number of active cases in Delhi will touch 60,004 by June 30; 134,722 by July 15 and 319,237 by July 31.

Kejriwal said the fight against Covid-19 has to be turned into a people’s movement. “We need to keep in mind three things: wearing masks, washing hands regularly and maintaining social distancing. People should encourage each other to follow this.”

Kejriwal added that 1,900 people have been hospitalised in Delhi government hospitals over the last eight days. He attributed most of the hospitalisations to the Delhi Corona App launched on June 2 to allow people to check availability of hospital beds on a real-time basis.

“... around 200 people [also] faced difficulty in getting beds. Nearly 4,200 beds are still vacant, but they are mostly in Delhi government hospitals. Private hospitals are mostly full. We are working on increasing the bed capacity in that sector,” said Kejriwal.

The Delhi government on Tuesday issued an order asking 22 private to increase the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients by 2,015. The capacity in these private hospitals has now gone up to 3,456 from 1,441 beds. With this, the number of beds has increased from 8,872 to 10,887 in Delhi.

The fatality rate in Delhi currently is 2.92%, which is higher than the national average of 2.81%. Delhi is conducting 13,433 tests per million as compared to the national average of 3,797 tests per million, according to government data. Till Monday, Delhi had conducted 266,156 tests.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said that instead of complaining about the L-G’s decisions, the Kejriwal government should back demands with data. “I demand that the chief minister release the detailed figures on how many Covid-19 patients from which states other than Delhi were treated in Delhi, how many of them recovered and how many died,” he said. Meanwhile, as anecdotes of hospitals overcharging patients continued to do the rounds, L-G Baijal said all major hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in Delhi will have to display near their entrance, room charges and availability of beds on a real-time basis.