Safdarjung gets 15 ventilators beds, higher ICU capacity as Centre releases aid

By Ashish Srivastava New Delhi, Nov 18 : : The Centre-run Safdarjung hospital has started its fourth dedicated ICU facility after it received 15 ventilator beds from the first batch of medical assistance from the Centre on Wednesday, officials informed IANS. The capacity of the ICU beds with ventilators in the hospital has been enhanced to 90 from earlier 75.
The ventilators have been received after the assurance by Home Minister Amit Shah about the capacity enhancement aid with a meeting held with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on earlier this week.
With Delhi witnessing a fresh spike in the number of Covid-19 cases, the Centre announced a slew of steps, including making available 300 additional ICU beds, doubling the number of daily PCR tests and house-to-house survey in the national capital.
Doctors said that the assistance would provide a much-needed breather to tertiary care in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic since more and more patients are reaching a critical condition. “With the third surge of infections, we are watching more patients progressing towards severe symptoms of the disease. The rate has more than doubled and left us panting,” said Dr Manish, president, Resident Doctors Association (RDA), Safdarjung Hospital.
More healthcare workers are being infected in the hospitals Manish also said that apart from admissions, more people are coming with the symptoms of the viral disease. “We test around 500-600 patients daily which is a double the spike than we were reporting a few weeks ago. The patients with symptoms are screened at fever clinic and then advised for testing of the virus if found exhibiting symptoms of the COVID-19,” he added.