Amid a surge in the Covid-19 cases in the national Capital, mock drills were conducted at hospitals for the second day running, to ascertain their preparedness to tackle the disease in case of a pandemic. The city had reported almost 700 Covid cases and four deaths on Sunday, an increase of more than 200 infections from the previous day when three deaths were also recorded. As many as 484 cases were reported with a positivity rate of 26.58 per cent on Monday.
The mock drill conducted on Tuesday was part of a nationwide exercise to take stock of the hospitals’ preparedness to tackle the surge in Covid cases. Officials had already announced that both public and private facilities are expected to participate in the exercise conducted on April 10 and 11. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visited the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital here on Monday to review the measures taken to combat the disease. At Delhi government-run hospitals, the exercise was undertaken on Tuesday. Suresh Kumar, the medical director of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, said more cases are being reported in the city but there is no need to panic.
“Only 10 patients have been admitted to our hospital, while 440 Covid beds are vacant. The objective of the exercise is to ascertain our preparedness in terms of availability of essential medicine, equipment and staff,” he said. Talking about the recent Covid-related deaths, Kumar said only those who had severe comorbidities like tuberculosis, cancer, chronic lung diseases etc succumbed to the infection.
