In a bid to ramp up the medical infrastructure in the fight against COVID-19, the Delhi government on July 5 announced a nearly three-fold increase in the number of ICU beds in LNJP, Rajiv Gandhi and GTB hospitals in the national capital.

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The number of ICU beds has increased from 60 to 180 in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, from 45 to 120 in Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital, and from 31 to 66 in GTB Hospital by July 5. This comes as a breather as the COVID tally in tally continues to rise.

Delhi has reported around 97,000 cases so far. However, 68,256 patients have recovered. The recovery rate in Delhi has crossed 70 percent on July 4, and the number of hospitalised patients has gone down from 6,200 to 5,300. The Delhi government claimed that the number of vacant COVID beds is around 9,900, which is nearly 65 percent of total bed capacity in COVID hospitals.

A few days back, the Chief Minister had announced with adequate bed capacity in COVID hospitals, major efforts are under way to now increase the ICU beds. "With an increase in the ICU beds, the fatality rate in Delhi is expected to further reduce due to enhanced capacity to take care of critical patients. Over the last few weeks, the daily number of fatalities due to COVID-19 has gone down substantially from over 120 a day to 55 on July 4," the Delhi government said in a statement on July 5.

Delhi's handling of the pandemic came under sharp criticism from the Supreme Court which branded it as "horrendous", following which the Centre stepped in to bolster its fight against COVID-19.