Discontinue extended COVID-19 facilities at hotels: Delhi govt asks private hospitals

New Delhi, July 31: The Delhi government has directed private hospitals to discontinue their extended COVID-19 facilities at hotels with immediate effect in view of the marked improvement in the coronavirus situation in the capital.

The government had issued an order earlier during the second wave linking hotels with private hospitals in order to convert them into extended COVID facilities in view of the rising number of coronavirus cases and also augment bed capacity in the national capital.

"It has been decided to discontinue the scheme of creation of health care facilities at hotels by private hospitals which was operationalised earlier. All concerned private hospitals are, accordingly, directed to wind up the facilities operating in hotels with immediate effect," the new order issued on July 29 said.

Delhi had faced a brutal second COVID wave with shortage of beds and oxygen adding to the woes. Since April 19, both daily cases and single-day death count had been spiralling up, with over 28,000 cases and 277 deaths recorded on April 20; rising to 306 fatalities on April 22.

On May 3, the city had registered a record 448 deaths, according to official data. However, the number of cases have shown a downward trend and the positivity rate too has been shrinking in the last several days.

The number of deaths per day has also been declining. Delhi recorded 63 new Covid cases and three more fatalities on Friday while the positivity rate stood at 0.09 per cent.

The cumulative number of coronavirus cases in the national capital stands at 14,36,207 while the overall fatalities count is 25,052. With the decline in cases, hospital beds have also freed up. According to data, out of 12,283 beds in hospitals, 333 are occupied.