Reports on shortage of beds for COVID-19 patients misleading: Jain

Delhi Heath Minister Satyendar on Friday said reports that there is a "shortage of beds" for coronavirus patients in city hospitals were "misleading".

"The truth is, there is absolutely no shortage of beds in Delhi at the moment," he was quoted as saying in a statement.

In the last three days, more than 1,000 patients have been admitted to various hospitals in Delhi. If beds were not available, this would have not been possible, he said.

"There are some misleading reports that there is shortage of beds for COVID-19 patients in Delhi because a few private hospitals are refusing admissions," Jain said.

Even now we have close to 5,000 vacant beds. So, clearly the issue is that some hospitals are "not updating the data on Delhi Corona app on time or misrepresenting actual data when patients call," he added.

Patients were not getting data on hospitals before, which the app is trying to fix, he said.

"We are making hospital bed data live and real time soon," the minister said.

In the latest health bulletin, the government on Friday said, out of the total 8,505 beds in dedicated COVID-19 facilities, 4,606 were vacant.

Delhi recorded 1,330 fresh coronavirus cases on Friday taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 26,000-mark, and the death toll due to the disease jumped to 708, authorities said.