NEW DELHI: Amidst rising cases of COVID-19 in the city, the OPD services at the state government-run Lok Nayak Hospital and the GB Pant Hospital will be closed from April 4 onwards, hospital administration said on Friday.
Both these hospitals are among the five facilities in Delhi designated for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The decision was taken during a meeting held on Thursday by the Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain.
It was decided that OPD services at the LNJP and GB Pant hospitals will be closed, the order issued on Friday said. The order will come into effect from April 4, it said. Earlier, AIIMS had also shut its OPD services across all centres.
COVID-19 LIVE | All 650 cases in last two days linked to Tablighi Jamaat; India tally stands at 2547
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the coronavirus has not spread in Delhi and that there is no need to panic, even as the national capital reported 91 new cases in the last 24 hours
Kejriwal said that out of all the cases, 259 are linked to Nizamuddin Markaz, a major hotspot of COVID-19.
Seventy-seven persons who were among those evacuated from Markaz tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. “The figure for cases that have arisen through local contact and transmission is constant and stable, which gives us hope that there is no spreading of corona in Delhi,” said Kejriwal.
The Delhi government has also arranged more private ambulances apart from the regular CATS ambulance so that patients face no difficulty. 25 private ambulances have been engaged in Lok Nayak and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospital each. The Delhi government has also launched a chatbot related to Covid-19 helpline. This helpline will provide complete information on coronavirus by the Health Department.
Need more supplies
To tackle with the pandemic, the state government has also demanded for immediate supply of 1 lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) 50,000 COVID-19 testing kits and 200 ventilators, from the central government.