New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS): With the number of Covid cases rising in the country, patients from the outskirts were coming to Delhi for treatment to avail of better facilities, claimed Delhi government sources.

As per the sources, the Delhi government has 14,000 beds, nearly 4,500 were occupied of which 1,500 (nearly 33 per cent) were occupied by those who were not Delhi residents.

Delhi government sources said that close to 70 per cent beds were still vacant. Only three of the 131 Covid hospitals (private and government) were full. There's no shortage of beds right now.

But the increasing number of patients from outside Delhi was a cause of major concern.

While ICU beds in a few top private hospitals were all occupied -- Max Saket, Max Patparganj, Indraprastha Apollo and Fortis Vasant Kunj -- over 70 per cent of these patients were from outside Delhi, government sources added.

With 83,341 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, India's tally mounted to 39,36,747 on Friday while the toll climbed to 68,472 with 1,096 more fatalities, said the Health Ministry.

Of the confirmed cases, 8,31,124 were active cases, while 30,37,151 have recovered from the virus till now. With 66,659 recoveries in a day, the recovery rate has increased to 77.15 per cent.

The number of patients recovering was on a steady rise over the past several months. As the daily recoveries increase, India has registered more than 60,000 recoveries each day, eighth day in a row.