NEW DELHI: On a day the city saw 20,181 new COVID-19 cases, testing for the virus was 1,02,965, the highest since April last year, while number of patients in ICU beds rose to 279 on Saturday, signifying a rapid rise in people falling sick and needing hospitalisation and extreme care.
According to doctors, those on ICU beds were suffering from comorbid conditions. Many of them were also not vaccinated and some of them had only the first dose of the vaccine.
The doctors said fatalities were mostly of patients with conditions such as cancer, kidney diseases and HIV. "Most of the patients are not dying because of COVID but because of comorbid conditions and most of the patients who died were diabetic," said a senior doctor.
"The patients were in serious health conditions before getting infected. They tested positive in hospitals when they visited for other treatments and from within their community," said a doctor treating COVID patients.
The Delhi government is ramping up bed facilities at hospitals and COVID care centres. On Saturday, health minister Satyender Jain said the government had decided to increase 5,650 beds and 2,075 ICU beds in its 14 hospitals. "The situation is normal now but the Delhi government is making all preparations rapidly so that the situation does not deteriorate," he said.
According to the health bulletin, a total of 1,586 hospital beds were occupied by COVID patients, including suspected patients. Out of these, 279 were in ICU, 375 on oxygen support beds and 27 on ventilator beds.