NEW DELHI: India’s federal government said on Sunday it will provide New Delhi’s city authorities with 500 railway coaches that will be equipped to care for coronavirus patients, after a surge in the number of cases led to a shortage of hospital beds.
The coaches will increase Delhi’s capacity by 8,000 beds, home minister Amit Shah said on Twitter after a meeting with the capital’s chief minister.
The government will also ramp up testing in the city, especially in containment zones, conduct a door-to-door health survey of residents and provide sufficient supplies of oxygen cylinders and ventilators, he said.
India is the fourth-worst affected country in the world, with cases steadily increasing. It reported a record single-day jump in cases on Sunday, adding nearly 12,000 confirmed infections and taking the total to more than 320,000, according to health ministry data.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March that has since been loosened.
With more than 22,000 active cases, Delhi is the third-worst affected after the states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The chief minister of Delhi, which has a population of 20 million, has said that the number of infections in the city are expected to cross more than half a million by the end of July.
Shah said a committee was examining providing 60% of private hospital beds in Delhi at low cost for coronavirus patients, and fixing the cost of testing and treatment. He added that a report would be submitted on Monday. That comes after a public outcry over the high cost of beds and coronavirus treatment at private hospitals.
Ashwani Jain succumbed to the coronavirus in an ambulance as his family pleaded with several hospitals to take him in, the latest victim of the pandemic sweeping through the Indian capital and exposing a deadly shortage of hospital beds.
“They don’t care whether we live or die,” said his 20-year-old daughter Kashish, whose uncle, Abhishek, sat with Ashwani in the back of the vehicle on its desperate journey across Delhi.
“It won’t matter to them but I have lost my father, he was the world to me,” she said, tears welling up as she showed a photo of him.
All of the hospitals the 45-year-old businessman’s family tried refused to admit Ashwani, even though an app set up by the city government indicated Covid-19 beds were free, Abhishek told. With surging infections highlighting the precarious state of the Indian healthcare system, the death of Jain and others like him have heightened anxiety in Delhi over the growing threat. More than 1,200 have died from the virus in the Indian capital and more than 1,000 new cases are being reported each day.
Mortuaries are overflowing with bodies and cemeteries and crematorium staff say they cannot keep up with the backlog of victims. Some local Delhi councils say the real death toll is twice the number given by the regional government. Indian media has been full of tragic stories of people dying after being turned away by hospitals. One pregnant woman died as she was being shuttled between hospitals. A 78-year-old man petitioned the Delhi High Court for a ventilator bed but died before the matter could be taken up. India has now recorded more than 300,000 coronavirus cases with nearly 9,000 fatalities.
– High price for rare beds
Several families have used social media to recount their harrowing experiences after being refused hospital beds. Jain’s family had joined a noisy, nationwide tribute to health workers, banging pots and pans from rooftops and balconies after a nationwide lockdown started in March. Now they feel abandoned.
“The government is doing nothing. They are just playing with our feelings,” Kashish said.
Jain’s devastated relatives are now waiting to get tested themselves but the Delhi government allows that for only high-risk and symptomatic family members. The city government has estimated that it could need 80,000 beds by the end of July, and warned hotels and wedding venues that they are likely to be turned into hospitals. Currently government hospitals have 8,505 designated pandemic beds while private hospitals have 1,441.
But families say they are being forced to spend a small fortune for the few beds that are available. Suman Gulati, whose father is a coronavirus patient, said she was asked for one million rupees ($13,200) by a private hospital for a bed. “Once I paid the money getting a bed was not a problem. But arranging such a huge amount of money at such a critical time was,” she told AFP.
“What if I fall sick next, what will I do? Should I sell my property, my jewellery?”
A sting operation by the Mirror Now TV channel showed five Delhi hospitals asking coronavirus patients to pay up to $5,250 in order to be admitted. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused private hospitals of lying about available beds and promised tough action if they were found extorting money. Experts are questioning the city’s handling of the pandemic however.–Agencies
