A high-powered panel set up by Union Home Minister Amit Shah has recommended fixing the cost of a COVID-19 isolation bed in private hospitals in the city in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 and an ICU bed with ventilator at Rs 15,000-Rs 18,000 per day, the Ministry said.
In his order, the LG said after the five-day institutional-quarantine, asymptomatic COVID-19 patients will be sent for home-isolation.
"Five-day institutional quarantine of each case under home-quarantine is to be made mandatory and, thereafter, (they) will be sent for home-isolation, except in cases where symptoms require further hospitalisation," Baijal said in his order.
The move is likely to put further stress on the already stretched health infrastructure.
In response, the Delhi government said the LG's decision on home quarantine is "arbitrary" and will "seriously harm" Delhi. It further said there is already a severe shortage of doctors and nurses to treat serious patients and in such a scenario, from where would medical manpower come for taking care of these quarantine centres.
According to the government, there are around 8,500 COVID-19 patients in home isolation in Delhi who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
On the Delhi health minister, sources indicated that the 55-year-old minister is likely to undergo plasma therapy though there was no official confirmation on it.
Jain, who was earlier admitted to the Delhi government's Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH), a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the city government in east Delhi, was diagnosed with pneumonia and his oxygen saturation level dipped.
"He was brought to Max hospital, Saket in the evening and admitted in ICU," an official said.
Jain had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to RGSSH, after running high-grade fever.
Delhi is among the states worst-affected by coronavirus. The rising number of cases have put severe stress on the health infrastructure here. Since last week, the Home Ministry has been steering the fight against coronavirus in the national capital.
The number of coronavirus patients stood at 49,979 while the death toll stood at 1,969 on Thursday.
On Friday, 12,680 people were tested for coronavirus with rapid antigen methodology of which 951 tested positive, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.
The Home Ministry panel was constituted on Sunday to ensure the availability of 60 per cent beds at private hospitals at lower rates and fix the rate of coronavirus testing and treatment.
"The committee has recommended Rs 8,000-10,000, 13,000-15,000 & 15,000-18,000 including PPE costs for isolation bed, ICUs without & with ventilator respectively to all hospitals as compared to the current charges of Rs 24,000-25,000, Rs 34,000-43,000 & Rs 44,000-54,000 (excluding PPE cost)," a Home Ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.
However, hospitals said the cost of treating the patients was much higher than what has been prescribed by the panel.
Requesting anonymity, the head of a private hospital said the recommendations on capping the cost were "not practical" as the costs have increased exponentially in terms of infrastructure and salaries. This has been aggravated by shortage of staff.
Fortis Healthcare, a leading hospital, also shared a similar opinion on rising costs.
"While we fully support the need for transparency of pricing, hospitals are incurring considerably increased expenses on both non-COVID and COVID patient care. It is important to ensure there is no compromise in the quality of care or the safety of healthcare professionals. We, therefore, request the committee to review the recommendations so that hospitals are in a position to provide quality care and yet sustain costs to function at optimum capacity," the hospital said.
As per the directions given by the home minister, in a series of meetings chaired by him over last few days with regard to the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, house-to-house health survey in 242 containment zones of Delhi was completed on Thursday and a total of 2.3 lakh people were surveyed.
Shah had also directed for testing capacity to be increased, quick delivery of results in Delhi and testing through the rapid antigen testing method that was started on Thursday.
In a related development, Sisodia who took over the charge of the Health Department in Jain's absence and called an urgent meeting with the administrators and medical directors of top COVID dedicated hospitals.
He said most existing beds in hospitals currently have oxygen supply and in the next ten days all other beds will have oxygen supply attached to them.
"All medical chiefs of all the hospitals have been directed to increase their bed capacity and all other requirements because coronavirus cases are rising in the city. In this realization, the Delhi government has directed to increase the ICU bed capacity in all the big dedicated COVID-19 hospitals," Sisodia said. KND ACB PR RDM RDM