Two Covid facilities in Delhi to be ready by February 2023: Govt

Two of the seven hospitals that were proposed as Covid-19 facilities by the Delhi government are likely to be ready by February 2023, senior health department officials said on Thursday.

According to a senior official of the Delhi government’s health department, over 90% work for two under-construction Covid hospitals—a 610-bed facility in Chacha Nehru Children’s Hospital in east Delhi’s Geeta Colony and a new 336-bed facility in south Delhi’s Sarita Vihar—is complete.

“The last leg of construction is left and we are hoping that these two facilities will be able to start taking in patients from February,” the official said, asking not to be named.

Officials from the department also said that even though the government aims to formally inaugurate the two hospitals in the next two months, they are prepared to open a portion of these buildings early if there is a surge in Covid-19 infections in the coming days.

“As predicted by the central government, the next 40 days are crucial for the assessment of Covid spread. Currently, the positivity rate in Delhi remains under 1%, but if required, we will open up parts of these hospitals for isolating patients,” said another official of Delhi’s health department.

To be sure, Covid-19 cases and deaths in the Capital over the past two months or so have been at their lowest levels over the course of the pandemic. Delhi on Thursday logged just 11 cases of Covid-19 and no deaths, said the state government’s daily health bulletin. Only 35 people in Delhi are currently infected with Covid-19, according to state government data. Cases in several parts of the world have picked up over the past few weeks, with China the worst off. However, experts have sought to allay concerns and said China’s situation is incomparable with India, which has significantly higher immunisation levels.

The official quoted above also said that while these hospitals will mainly cater to Covid patients, they will also have OPD (outpatient department) facilities for non-Covid patients.

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In 2020, in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, Delhi government had announced the construction of seven new ICU (intensive care unit) hospitals for Covid-19 patients across the Capital. These hospitals will have a combined capacity of 6,838 beds and will be semi-permanent facilities.

Under this project, the government had proposed building a four-storied hospital in Shalimar Bagh with 1,430 beds, a five-storied hospital in Kirari with 458 beds, a four-storied hospital in Sultanpuri with 527 beds, a five-storied hospital in Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital complex with 1,912 beds. The proposal also included a five-storied hospital with 610 beds at Chacha Nehru Children’s Hospital in Geeta Colony, a five-storied hospital with 336 beds in Sarita Vihar and a four-storied hospital with 1,565 beds in Raghuveer Nagar.