Five-member panel in Delhi predicts over 1 lakh cases in the capital by the end of June

The five-member committee set up by the AAP-led Kejriwal Government in Delhi has revealed that there would be over 1 lakh cases in the capital city by the end of June. The committee set up to provide insights into the capital's infrastructure and health facilities has predicted that Delhi's infrastructure could be burdened and the city may need over 40,000 beds by mid-July to smoothly deal with the pandemic. This comes in the backdrop of Kejriwal's recent proposition of keeping the Delhi borders closed and reserving the health facilities of the city for its citizens.

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The panel, headed by Indraprastha University vice-chancellor Dr Mahesh Verma, has submitted its report to the government in which it has said that if Delhi health infrastructure is open for non-residents, all beds will be occupied within just three days, according to the PTI sources.

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The panel includes other top members such as Dr Sunil Kumar, the medical director of GTB Hospital, Dr Arun Gupta, president of Delhi Medical Council, Dr R K Gupta, former president of Delhi Medical Association and Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, the group medical director of Max Hospital. 

Meanwhile, the Delhi Chief Minister last week launched the 'Delhi Corona' app which will have information regarding the availably of beds in hospitals across the national capital. Kejriwal stated that many a times, despite the availability of beds people were not getting the necessary medical facilities and were being shown the door in hospitals. Through this app, the citizens would be able to fill this 'information gap' and find out how many beds are available in which hospital which will help prevent black-marketing. He also claimed that the national capital has over 9,500 beds vacant as of now.

Delhi has so far reported 26,334 cases of COVID-19 according to the data released by the Union Health Ministry. Out of these 708 patients have succumbed to the illness while 10,315 people have recovered. Over the past few days, the rate of growth of new cases has been steep, which has raised concerns on the handling of the situation by the city-state's health infrastructure. 

(With Agency Inputs)

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