UPDATED: May 10, 2021 21:12 IST
Covid patients share a bed at a Kanpur hospital; Photo by Maneesh Agnihotri
Last November, when Covid cases in Delhi peaked to over 8,500 daily, a majority of the patients requiring hospitalisation struggled to find beds. Even temporary additional facilities set up earlier in June failed to handle the extra load of patients. The four temporary facilities included a 10,000-bed centre in Chhatarpur, run by the ITBP, with at least 1,000 oxygen beds. Similar but smaller facilities had been set up in Dhaula Kuan and at the Commonwealth Games Village.
But, in February, when daily cases dropped to below 200, the Delhi government declared victory over Covid and the four additional facilities were dismantled. Two months on, as the second Covid wave struck, Delhi witnessed an unprecedented shortage of hospital beds. Average daily cases peaked to over 25,000 and the city was gripped by an acute shortage of medical oxygen. Two major hospitals the Rajiv Gandhi S
ISSUE DATE: May 17, 2021
UPDATED: May 7, 2021 23:36 IST
Staff at the Ghazipur crematorium in Delhi cart in fresh logs as
funeral pyres burn all around them (Rajk Raj/ Getty Images)
The second wave of Covid-19 is still cresting but by now we have all been touched by its terrors, and all too many of us by its sorrows and the dismal realisation that we are in the midst of a recurring nightmare, a tragedy foretold. Here, we expose the sorry tale of neglect, apathy and failure of our political leadership. The institutional collapse and bureaucratic cowardice that facilitated super-spreader religious festivals and the political carnival of an eight-phase election campaign even as the second wave of a pandemic was breaking. The narcissism that enabled our leadership to ignore the warnings of expert groups. Their inability to form bipartisan alliances between the Centre and the states in the middle of a national calamity. Now that some of the loudest voices in the land have gone quiet, t
State hospitals told to reserve 70% beds for Covid patients Health department has also directed that treatment be given to all presumptive cases
The health department has asked all the government-run hospitals to reserve 70 per cent beds for Covid patients and also expressed the need to ensure similar reservations in private healthcare facilities owing to the unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases across the state.
In a letter addressed to all the Deputy Commissioner, Civil Surgeons, private hospitals and the director of Ranchi-based Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the health department stated that the various healthcare facilities in Jharkhand need to increase the number of dedicated beds for Covid patients in order to deal with the rapidly rising cases of Coronavirus infection in the state.
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Farmers arrive in a tractor for their tractor rally planned for January 26 in protest against new farm laws, at Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border on Friday, January 22, 2021.
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Protesting farmers will enter Delhi with their tractors on Republic Day, with farmer unions and police officials finding a compromise solution on Saturday, after three days of consultation. Farmer leaders claimed that the Delhi Police had given them permission to hold tractor parades on five routes within the national capital on January 26.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s health deteriorates
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Former Bihar CM is shifted to AIIMS in Delhi ailing from pneumonia
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Former Bihar CM is shifted to AIIMS in Delhi ailing from pneumonia
Imprisoned Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)president Lalu Prasad on Saturday was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi for better treatment as his health deteriorated at the Ranchi-based Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS). Mr. Prasad, convicted in several cases related to the fodder scam, was undergoing treatment for multiple diseases at RIMS.
“Lalu Prasad is having trouble breathing for the last two days. On Friday, he was found to be having pneumonia. Considering his age (72), we have decided to shift him to AIIMS-Delhi, on the advice of a panel of doctors, for better treatment,” RIMS Director Dr. Kameshwar Prasad told mediapersons.