Covid-19: Centre suggests cap on cost of beds at private hospitals in Delhi

New Delhi, June 19: In a bid to provide relief to common man, the central government has decided to fix the prices of coronavirus treatment in Delhi.

A committee formed by Union home minister Amit Shah, has recommended capping the charges for COVID-19 treatment in the private hospitals.

The committee has recommended to fix rates for isolation beds within Rs 8,000 to RS 10,000. For ICU unites without ventilators, the charges will be between RS 13,000 to RS 15,000. For ICU with ventilators, a bed will cost between RS 15,000-18,000. All the charges include PPE costs.

These treatment rates for COVID-19 infected people will be applicable to private hospitals.

To provide relief to the common man in Delhi, Home Minister Amit Shah constituted a committee under Member of NITI Aayog to fix rates charged by Private hospitals in Delhi for isolation beds, ICUs without ventilator support and ICUs with ventilator support.

Sample testing has been doubled immediately in pursuance of decisions taken by HM Amit Shah in series of meetings. A total of testing samples of 27,263 have been collected in Delhi from 15 to 17 June 2020 against the daily collection which varied between 4,000-4,500 earlier.

Meanwhile, India on Friday added 13,586 new COVID-19 cases for the first time in a single day, pushing the tally to 3,80,532, while the death toll rose to 12,573 with 336 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

In some positive news, the number of recoveries crossed the two lakh mark and stands at 2,04,710, while there are 1,63,248 total COVID-19 active cases, according to the updated official figure at 8 am.