New Delhi, Jun 19 (IANS): Amid the spurt of coronavirus cases in the national capital, the city government has reached out to the Delhi Medical Association to provide doctors who are experienced in handling small hospitals and nursing homes to run banquet halls which are being turned into Covid-19 facilities.

The Delhi government is seeking to augment the number of beds available for Covid-19 patients by setting up makeshift facilities in over 70 banquet halls in the city. The challenge is to find sufficient numbers of doctors to staff the halls.

Talking to IANS, Delhi Medical Association President Girish Tyagi said: "DMA has come in agreement with the Delhi government. After getting a green signal from the government to take over the halls, we will ask our members to manage them."

Private doctors will be asked to take charge of a certain number of beds and use their own staff to manage it.

"Delhi government will be providing infrastructure and other logistics like oxygen supply and PPE kits. In these centres, only patients with asymptomatic or mild symptomatic will be treated," the DMA President said.

The national capital is under immense pressure to improve the health infrastructure as the city government expects the coronavirus cases to climb upto 5.5 lakh by July-end.

Currently, the capital city has over 50,000 cases - the third highest in the country, and over 2,000 deaths.

The preparations took up the speed after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that there will be one lakh cases and the city would require 15,000 beds by June 30.