40 hotels, 80 banquet halls to be converted to COVID-19 facilities with 20K more beds

New Delhi, June 14: The Delhi government has directed district magistrates and other officials concerned to set up nearly 20,000 more beds within a week in the wake of a spurt in COVID-19 cases in the national capital, an official said.

According to the official, around 40 hotels and 80 banquet halls will be converted into health facilities to provide medical care to coronavirus-infected people.

The COVID-19 tally has reached nearly 39,000 in Delhi and the virus has claimed more than 1,200 lives so far in the capital. Earlier this week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that Delhi would need 1.5 lakh beds by July 31 if people from other states start coming to the national capital for treatment.

Following the government's order, the northwest district administration has issued an order to convert 22 banquet halls into health facilities where around 3,300 beds will be set up by the authorities.

"As per the plan, banquet halls will be attached to nursing homes while in hotels, extended services of hospitals will be provided," the official said.

According to the Delhi Corona app, out of 9,850 beds available in the city, 5,448 were occupied at 7 pm on Sunday while 4,402 beds were vacant.

"Hotels will have 4,000 beds while banquets halls will have 11,000 beds. Nursing homes will have 5,000 beds," the official said. With COVID-19 cases increasing alarmingly, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday announced that testing will be doubled in Delhi in the next two days and subsequently increased by three times.

In view of shortage of beds for coronavirus-infected patients in Delhi, the central government has decided to immediately provide 500 railway coaches which will be equipped with all facilities, he said.