The Delhi Chief Minister on Wednesday announced to delink hotels that were recently attached with dedicated Covid-19 hospitals as there has been a decline in the number of active cases of the novel coronavirus in the last few days in the city.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said all beds in such hotels, which were recently attached to hospitals, were lying vacant for the last many days.
The decision was taken after the chief minister reviewed the Covid-19 situation in the city.
“Some hotels were attached to hospitals to increase the number of COVID beds. In view of the improving situation and all hotel beds lying vacant for the last many days, these hotels are now being released,” Kejriwal tweeted.
As the city started witnessing a surge in number of Covid-19 cases last month, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had attached around 40 hotels to hospitals to increase the bed capacity in the city.
Kejriwal “The hotels are now being released after the situation of COVID-19 gets improved. Delhi now has less than 11,000 active cases in the city and more than 88 per cent of cases have recovered,” he said.
In early June, around 40 hotels were attached with the Delhi government, after orders were issued to the DMs of the 11 districts to attach hotels such as Hyatt Regency, Pullman, and others. The linking of the hotels enhanced the capacity of the COVID-19 beds by 4600.
In another tweet, Kejriwal said, "Existing guidelines say that if any patient’s antigen test is negative but has symptoms, RT-PCR test must be done on him. I directed the officers today to ensure strict compliance of these guidelines."
“The number of Corona cases in Delhi was increasing in early June. In view of this, the Delhi Government had established Covid Care Centers in about three dozen hotels.
Although some hotel owners initially went to court against the decision of the Delhi government, the Delhi government won the case,” he said.
With the efforts of the Delhi government, the condition of Corona in Delhi has improved significantly and at present only about 10,000 cases is active. The Delhi government has more than 15,000 Covid beds, out of which more than 12000 remain vacant.
According to the Delhi health bulletin, 12,980 Covid-19 beds in hospitals and more than 5026 beds in dedicated Covid care centres were lying vacant due to declining number of positive cases of coronavirus.
The number of active cases of Covid-19 was 10,770 on Wednesday including 5,894 patients recuperating under home isolation.
Patients with moderate symptoms staying at such hotels received basic healthcare and were to be shifted to the attached hospitals in case their condition worsened.
Three hotels in south west Delhi was earlier this month delinked from their respective hospitals due to low occupancy. But the decision was reversed by the district authorities within a day.
