Delhi plans to add 20,000 beds at hotels, banquet halls within a week

The Delhi government plans to add 20,000 beds across the hotels and banquet halls of the city over the coming week --  a quarter of the 80,000 beds it expects to need by July-end to cope with the spiraling coronavirus cases.

The national capital has logged nearly 38,000 cases so far, reports NDTV. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has said that going by the current doubling rate the city, 5.5 lakh cases are expected by the end of July. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is meeting Union home minister Amit Shah and Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to discuss preparations to handle the surge.

Delhi is at the third position – after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu – in terms of cases and recorded more than 2,000 cases for a second consecutive day on Saturday.

Approximately 11,000 beds will be arranged at 80 banquet halls and these beds will be attached to nursing homes, the government said.

Around 4,000 beds will also be arranged at 40 hotels and will be attached to private hospitals in the city.

All nursing homes with 10 to 49 beds will be set aside for coronavirus patients, which will add another 5000 beds to the total. Treatment of coronavirus patients has already started in some of the hotels-turned hospitals.