As Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced reservation of 20 per cent beds for COVID-19 patients in private hospitals, doctors have warned that “mixing” Coronavirus-infected patients in hospitals treating people with other ailments might lead to a further spread of the virus.

The private hospitals and doctors have decided to write to Arvind Kejriwal to review its decision.

Reacting on the government’s move, Dr Girish Tyagi, president of Delhi Medical Association, said that the bigger challenge would be for the small hospitals as they do not have enough space to handle both COVID-19 and non-COVID patients at the same time, which would in turn become risky for all.

“The bigger hospitals that have several blocks can manage to dedicate these beds. However, the challenge will be for smaller ones as they might not have enough space or separate entry and exits to ensure COVID-19 and non-COVID patients are segregated properly. This might lead to a spread of the infection within the hospitals,” Hindustan Times quoted Dr Tyagi as saying.

On Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said 2000 new beds will be available in private hospitals for those who go there for COVID-19 treatment.

Further, in a warning to the private hospitals, Kejriwal said that Coronavirus patients “can’t be turned away”.

Kejriwal said there were about 4,000 COVID beds with the government, of which only 1,500 were occupied. In private hospitals, 677 beds are available of which 509 are occupied.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has admitted that Coronavirus cases have been increasing slowly in Delhi, but assured that the situation is under control and there is nothing to worry.

The spread of the novel Coronavirus has shown no indication of slowing down with the increase mercury, in fact in the last 15 days it has steadily climbed the graph adding in two weeks more cases than it did in the first 100 days. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry Data revealed that there were 6,535 new cases added in 24 hours which also witnessed 146 new fatalities.

As the total tally of COVID-19 cases in India touched 1,45,380, it also showed a week of continued spurt in the cases hovering close to 6,000 before almost touching the 7,000 mark.

The national capital, according to Health Ministry data, has so far reported 14,053 cases and 276 fatalities.

India is now among the ten countries worst hit by the pandemic that has over 5 million cases worldwide.