Delhi govt approaches Railways for 5,000 Covid-coaches amid record surge in cases

The Delhi government has asked the railway ministry to arrange around 5,000 beds in railway coaches citing huge demand arising out of a spike in Covid-19 cases in Delhi.
Further, Covid-care coaches have been asked to be deployed at Anand Vihar and Shakur Basti Railway stations by the Delhi government.

Delhi reported around 25,000 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal informed on Sunday.

Kejriwal said that there was a shortage of hospital beds with less than 100 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds remaining.

“In GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi), the facilities at government and private hospitals available in Delhi are getting strained and there is an urgent need for more number of Covid bed facilities to cope up with the ever increasing demand of Covid-19 patients who require admissions in hospitals,” Vijay Kumar Dev, the Chief Secretary of Delhi, wrote to Railway board chairman Suneet Sharma on Saturday.

Last year, amid the Covid-19 outbreak, the Indian railways converted railway coaches into Covid care units, which were to be used for patients affected by the virus.

States which had exhausted their healthcare facilities and needed to augment capacities for isolation of both suspect and confirmed Covid cases, could opt for these Covid-care coaches.

Dev in his letter asked for arranging Covid bed facilities at Anand Vihar and Shakur Basti Railway stations "with full logistics support, requisite medical and para-medical staff and oxygen facilities on an emergent basis."

“Further, we would be grateful if you identify more such facilities upto a level of 5,000 beds, as was done last year, so as to meet the huge demand of beds arising out of an ever increasing surge in positive cases this time in NCT of Delhi,” Dev wrote.

As Delhi reels under the massive rise in Covid-19 case load, beds for Covid-19 patients have been installed in schools, Commonwealth Games Village and Yamuna Sports Complex, Kejriwal said.

Amid what is now an alarming situation for the National capital, the positivity rate in Delhi has gone up to 30% from 25%.