Covid-19: Govt to decide on reserving 80% beds in pvt hospitals today

The Delhi government has informed the Delhi High Court that a discussion on a new strain of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom (UK) was taken up in a recent meeting on deciding if reservation of 80% beds for Covid patients should continue in the city’s hospitals. The government further told the court that due to the current evolving situation of a new Covid-19 strain, the government order of reserving the beds would be reviewed on December 23.

In an affidavit filed by advocate Sanjoy Ghose, additional standing counsel of the Delhi government, has said that the new strain of the virus had been discussed in the meeting on December 21 and a committee has been constituted to look for the formulation of a graded strategy of de-escalation.

It said that the expert committee — comprising Dr VK Paul, Dr Randeep Guleria, Dr Nivedita from ICMR and Dr SK Singh, director of NCDC — was closely monitoring the present developments .

“Therefore, the expert committee suggested that a committee may be constituted to look into the graded strategy of de-escalation, keeping in view, the current evolving situation and keeping the required regional balance of availability to Covid Care,” the minutes of the meeting read.

“Accordingly, a committee has been formed to submit their recommendations within two days, on the basis of which the government order dated September 12 will be reviewed,” the affidavit read.

The affidavit was filed in a plea by the Association of Healthcare Providers, through advocate Sanyam Khetarpal, which had challenged the September 12 decision of the Delhi government to reserve 80% ICU beds in 33 private hospitals for Covid-19 patients. This order was stayed by the high court on September 22 by a single judge bench.

Later, on October 9, a division bench of the court took up an appeal by the Delhi government, but refused to vacate the stay while adjourning the matter to November 27. The AAP government then approached the Supreme Court against the two orders. But the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the HC order and asked the government to seek relief from the high court.

On November 12, a division bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad vacated the stay considering the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city at that time.

On the last date, the Delhi government had told the court that more than 80% of the ICU beds in the 33 private hospitals were occupied and sought 10 more days to review the order.