Delhi gets additional 450 COVID beds with partial opening of Burari hospital

The Delhi government on Saturday augmented the total number of beds in COVID hospitals here by 450 with the partial opening of a new facility in Burari.

The hospital in north Delhi will have a total of 700 beds, out of which 450 beds have been made operational. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated it via video conferencing and said, this will help in the fight against COVID-19. Around 125 beds will have oxygen supply available with them, and the capacity will be enhanced in the coming days, officials said.

Kejriwal said the new Burari hospital will serve the people of the area and will prove to be a huge support in augmenting the health infrastructure in Delhi.

According to the Saturday bulletin, the total number of beds in COVID hospitals stood at 15,475 out of which 12,340 are vacant. After adding 450 more beds, the number has grown to 15,925.

Kejriwal said, people of the city, his government and the Centre together have "attained victory over COVID-19 but the fight is not yet over".

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who was presented at the hospital during the event, had been cautioning that novel coronavirus has an "unpredictable behaviour" and therefore "we cannot afford to lower our guard" even those daily cases count and positivity rate have come down.

Delhi recorded 1,142 fresh coronavirus cases on Saturday, taking the tally in the city to over 1.29 lakh, while the death toll from the disease rose to 3,806 authorities said.

The active cases tally on Saturday was 12,657, down from 13,681, the previous day. The Delhi government recently had gave its nod to make 200 beds operational at the under-construction Ambedkar Nagar Hospital in order to ramp up the bed strength amid rise in coronavirus cases in the city.