Increase mortuary capacity in Delhi hospitals, install refrigerated containers to store bodies: Delhi govt panel on COVID-19

By Priyanka Sharma
New Delhi [India], June 15 : As the numbers of coronavirus deaths are on the rise in the national capital, a Delhi government panel has recommended strengthening the mortuary capacity in hospitals by installing 'refrigerated containers' to the dead bodies.
Recently, the Centre-run Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the city procured a refrigerated container to store bodies after the available space in the mortuary was exhausted.
Last week, Dr Mahesh Verma who is chairman of the government panel along with Gyanesh Bharti, Commissioner South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and Dr R Verma, DGHS at the Union Health Ministry visited four major hospitals which are providing treatment to the COVID-19 patients.
These hospitals include - Lok Nayak Hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, and Dr RML hospital.
A senior government official, upon conditions of anonymity, told ANI: "Last Friday, the committee visited four big hospitals to see overall preparedness of these medical institutions running medical colleges. Apart from strengthening the number of beds, the Committee has recommended enhancing mortuary facilities to accommodate the dead bodies. Like, at RML, we found refrigerated containers a solution, and similarly, the committee has asked the state government to acquire them if the need arises."
"The committee has also recommended the government to create specific arrangements in each hospital such as--more human resources (HR), medical supplies, manpower including doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians, etc," he said and added that strengthening of laboratories with COVID-19 testing facilities was also a part of the recommendation, as most of the state-run hospitals do not have the facility to detect coronavirus test, added the official.
On May 2, the Delhi government had framed a five-member committee for Covid-19 management in the national capital. Their work includes- to see overall preparedness of hospitals in Delhi, augment health infrastructure, and any other area where the strengthening of infrastructure of health facilities is required for better management of COVID-19 in the city.
In the coming days, Delhi may see over five lakh COVID-19 cases by July end and the city would need 80,000 beds to accommodate the virus-infected patients, as projected by the Delhi government. At present, the doubling rate in Delhi is 14-15 days, as projected by the panel.
Witnessing the seriousness of the situation, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a high-level meeting with Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other senior officials of the government.
To help the Delhi government to cope with the crisis, Shah has immediately ordered to provide 500 converted rail coaches. This will add 8,000 beds for COVID-19 patients when the need arises. The central government has also ordered for testing to double in 2 days and treble in 6 days.
Meanwhile, a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Dr VK Paul, Member NITI Aayog to ensure the availability of 60 percent of their corona beds by private hospitals at lower rates and to fix the rate of corona testing and treatment.
In the last 24 hours, Delhi has reported a spike of 2,224 new cases. While the total number of covid19 cases in the city rose to 41,182 and the virus has claimed 1327 lives so far.
According to the Union Health Ministry, India reported a spike of 11,502 new coronavirus cases and 325 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 9520 and the total number of cases climbed to 3,32,424 on Monday.