Covid-19: 500 bedded DRDO facility to start operating in Delhi

Struggling for more Covid beds, Delhi is set to get a new 500-bed dedicated Covid-19 facility, which has been built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation near Delhi airport.

Ready to take patients from Monday, all beds in the DRDO facility have oxygen supply. It would also have a large number of ventilators and basic testing facilities. For any complicated neuro or cardiac cases, the patient will be referred to AIIMS Delhi.

"A medical team from the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services will run the new facility. Also there will be no charge for the patients,” said N K Arya, DRDO spokesperson.

Last year, the defence research agency established a 1,000 bed facility at the same spot during the first wave of the pandemic. But it was folded up in the first week of February due to a dearth of patients.

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“Now again a 500 bed facility is being set up at the same place. By Monday it should start taking patients. While 250 beds will be ready by Monday, the remaining will be in place in another few days,” he said.

Out of 16,979 Covid-19 beds in hospitals in Delhi, as many as 12,699 are occupied as on Saturday afternoon as the new infections continue to rise sharply in the national capital.

More than 24,000 fresh cases were recorded in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of nearly 25%, which means one out of every four persons tested in Covid-19 positive in Delhi.