The Capital’s bars and restaurants will only be allowed to extend takeaway and home delivery services while violation of COVID-appropriate behaviour will be dealt with more strictly now.
These were among decisions taken by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Monday amid the rising graph of COVID-19 cases in the city. Only one weekly market will be allowed to open per zone a day. Buses and metro services, however, will continue to run at 100% capacity.
The DDMA, said a source, also decided to urge other State governments in the National Capital Region (NCR) to impose restrictions similar to those in the Capital in their respective jurisdictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections.
“After detailed discussion with experts it was advised to adhere to the strategy of Test, Track & Treat with emphasis on enforcement of Covid Appropriate Behaviour to contain the spread of infection,” Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who chaired the meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and experts, tweeted.
The L-G said officers have been advised to “strictly ensure” the wearing of masks and adherence to social distancing in marketplaces and public areas to break the chain of transmission.
He also directed the Health Department to make adequate arrangements for additional manpower in hospitals and to scale up vaccination efforts.
The Delhi government, meanwhile, said it was preparing the hospital infrastructure needed to tackle as many as 1 lakh COVID-19 cases in the city on a daily basis.
Bed projections
Such a scenario would require 46,000 hospital beds — 28,000 oxygenated ones and 18,000 ICU beds. With a fall in tests, the number of fresh cases in 24 hours fell to 19,166 on Monday from 22,751 on Sunday.
According to the government, assuming the hospitalisation of 5% infected patients over the coming days, if daily cases touched the 30,000 mark, 1,500 patients would be in need of hospitalisation and the total beds needed to tackle this rise in infections would be 13,800.
In case of 40,000 daily cases, 2,000 patients would be in need of hospitalisation and 23,000 beds would be required. Daily cases rising to 75,000 would see 3,750 patients in need of hospitalisation and 34,500 beds in total.
In case of 1 lakh daily cases, 5,000 patients would need hospital beds, 5,000 would need oxygen, 1,000 would require ICU beds and 46,000 beds would be needed in total.
In all five scenarios, patients were forecast to spend seven days on oxygen beds and as many as 18 days in ICU, if required. As of January 10, there were 16,380 oxygenated hospital beds ready in addition to 3,619 ICU beds. These, according to the government, could be scaled up to 28,645 oxygenated beds and 8,041 ICU beds in one escalation, 37,000 and 10,594 in the second, and to 50,000 and 12,059 in the third escalation, if need be.
