New Delhi: COVID-19 fatalities on Monday crossed the 5,000-mark in Delhi, as the official health bulletin added 32 deaths from the virus to the toll and 2,548 new infections to the total tally of cases, which is now over 2.49 lakh, officials here said. The relatively low count of fresh infections came out of the 33,733 tests done in the last 24 hours, of which 8,828 were RT-PCR tests and the rest were rapid antigen tests, as per the health departments bulletin on Monday. Active cases also dropped to 30,941 as the Capital reported 3,672 fresh recoveries, taking the total number of recovered patients to above 2.13 lakh. Of the active cases, 19,213 are under home isolation and around 6,990 are in hospital beds. The Delhi government said that over 8,000 COVID-19 beds are vacant. Meanwhile, Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday said 30 per cent of the COVID-19 patients admitted to Delhi hospitals are from other states and that non-residents of Delhi have been occupying most of the ICU beds in private hospitals. "People coming from outside prefer private hospitals. They make up their mind in advance. These patients go directly to these four-five hospitals they have heard of... such as Max, Apollo and Fortis. Thats why ICU beds at these hospitals are full," Jain told reporters. Asked about the shortage of ICU beds, Jain said, "We have around 1,000 ICU beds available in Delhi. The number of vacant beds is available on Delhi Corona app... nothing is being concealed." Around 1,500 non-ICU beds and more than 500 ICU beds have been added over the last few days, he said. Moreover, the Delhi governments largest COVID-19 facility, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital said that more than 400 children had recovered from the contagious disease at their facility since March this year. "Around 415 children have successfully recovered from coronavirus. Around 10 per cent of them were severe cases," Dr Urmila Jhamb said. Children suffering from other diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer and kidney issues become severely ill if they contract the coronavirus, she said, adding most children show mild symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting. About 50 COVID-19-infected children are currently admitted to a special ward designed for them at the hospital. The hospital recently created a special COVID ward for children, a first-of-its-kind facility in the national capital. "Non-profit Doctors for You helped us create a separate ward for children because they need some recreational activity. Children can watch cartoons on TVs installed in the ward and play with toys," Dr Jhamb said. "We have a coordinator who narrates stories to these children. We also gave them storybooks to keep them busy. Swings have been installed in an open area," she added. The ward also has paintings on walls with Hindi and English alphabets and pictures of fruits and animals.

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