By Praveen Dwivedi
New Delhi, Apr 21 (IANS): While the streets of the national capital wore a deserted look on the first day of the six-day lockdown on Monday, sounds of ambulance siren echoed in the city roads, especially in the areas having dedicated Covid-19 hospitals.
In the last seven days (from April 14 to April 20), more than 1,200 (1,202) people have fallen prey to Covid-19 in the national capital, which reported its highest single-day death toll of 277 on Tuesday, taking its overall toll to 12,638 till date.
Delhi on Tuesday reported 28,395 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, while the test positivity rate rose to 32.82 percent, according to the health bulletin issued by Delhi government. As of now, Delhi has as many as 85,575 active cases of which 40,124 are in home isolation.
The single-day death toll in Delhi had breached the three-figure mark for the first time in 2021 on April 14 (104), after reporting 81 deaths the day before. Since then, the death toll has been steadily increasing, shattering all previous records.
According to Delhi government data, on April 15, the city reported 112 Covid related deaths, 141 on April 16, 167 on April 17 and 161 on April 18.
Covid-19 patients are struggling to find a bed in the government hospitals and the situation is worse for those seeking beds with ventilator support.
A woman at the LNJP hospital, whose husband is admitted there since Saturday, said, "It has been more than 12 hours, but I have no information about my husband. Usually there is a facility to connect video calls, but since last night, no one is responding. I come here every day carrying food for my husband.
Though the number of general beds in Delhi has been increased, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told the press on Monday that out of the 1,449 ICU beds available with ventilators, only seven were vacant. Out of the 3,146 ICU beds without ventilators, 3,123 were occupied and only 23 were vacant.
The Delhi government's Corona App stated that (till 8:30 pm on Tuesday), several big and Covid dedicated government hospitals did not have even a single ICU bed with ventilator support for Covid patients.
The list (hospital name - total beds - vacant beds with ventilator support, in that order):
The Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital -- 250 -- 0
AIIMS -- 71 -- 4
Safadarjung -- 65 -- 0
Sardar Patel Hospital -- 50 -- 0
Deen Dayal Upadhyay -- 34 -- 0
Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital -- 30 -- 0
Ram Manohar Lohiya -- 28 -- 1
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital -- 90 -- 0