Number of COVID-19, ICU beds increased in Delhi's hospitals: Satyendar Jain

To ramp up Delhi's medical infrastructure to deal with the surge in COVID-19 cases, Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said that the number of COVID and ICU beds was increased in the hospitals.

"We have increased the number of beds in hospitals. As many as 17,292 COVID-19 beds available in Delhi out of which 7700 beds are empty as of now. Intensive care unit (ICU) beds have also been increased by 400, more will be added in the days to come. Around 250 ICU beds will be increased in private hospitals too," Satyendar Jain said in a daily press briefing.

The national capital has 39,741 active cases of the disease till Saturday, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A total of 4,75,106 recoveries and 8,270 deaths were recorded in the national capital so far.

"Yesterday, 5,879 new cases of coronavirus were registered in Delhi while the positivity rate was around 12 per cent," Jain added.

Meanwhile, for the first time, the number of RT-PCR tests in Delhi exceeded Rapid Antigen Tests and as many as 250 new ventilators were delivered to the Defence Research and Development Orgsation (DRDO) hospital to expand the COVID-19 treatment capacity in the national capital, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Sunday.

The Home Ministry also informed that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had begun recruitment of additional 207 junior residents to increase their medical staff in view of the rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi.

( With inputs from ANI )