Delhi's Taj Mansingh Hotel now COVID-19 facility

The Delhi government on Tuesday issued an order attaching the Taj Mansingh Hotel to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and directed that its premises, including all its rooms, be used as a COVID-19 facility.

The move to attach it with the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, comes in pursuance of meeting a projected requirement of 1.5 lakh beds in healthcare facilities in Delhi by July-end, amid a massive surge in coronavirus cases in the national capital.

Taj Mansingh Hotel, a flagship brand of the Tata group, is located in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi.

The Delhi government has projected a massive requirement of beds in view of the growing coronavirus cases in the national capital. The SGRH was earlier declared as a COVID-19 facility.

The order also said that the hospital would be responsible for proper disposal of biomedical waste generated at the hotel.

All hotel staff will be provided with protective gear and basic training to handle COVID-19 patients, it said.

Ambulance for transfer of patients will be the hospital's responsibility, while food, housekeeping service and disinfection of premises will be done by the hotel.

The charges for using the rooms will be collected by the hospital, which will then hand it over to the hotel, the order said.

If the need arises, the hospital can arrange for the stay of its doctors, nurses and paramedical staff at the hotel itself. The hotel and the hospital management can decide the rates mutually, the authorities said.

Authorities at the SGRH said that they have received the order.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently had said that Delhi will need 1.5 lakh beds in healthcare facilities by July 31 once people start coming to the city for treatment from other states, while asserting that the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation will make an "honest effort" to provide medical treatment to all.

The chief minister said that of the 1.5 lakh beds, it was estimated that 80,000 would be required for Delhiites, adding that the calculation is based on numbers that show 50 per cent of the beds in hospitals in the national capital were occupied by those from other states before the coronavirus pandemic.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that around 7,000 beds will be occupied by June 15, and 15,000 beds will be occupied by June 30.

He had said that larger-scale preparations are being made for COVID infrastructure in stadiums, banquet halls, and hotels.

Delhi recorded 1,647 fresh coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the COVID-19 tally in the city to over 42,000-mark, and the death toll due to the disease climbed to 1,400, authorities said.

Late May, Delhi authorities had issued an order saying, five hotels had been linked to existing COVID-19-dedicated hospitals to be used as extended COVID-19 facilities.

The five hotels are Hotel Crown Plaza (Batra Hospital), Hotel Surya (Indraprastha Apollo Hospital), Hotel Sidhartha (Dr BL Kapur Memorial Hospital), Hotel Jivitesh (Sir Ganga Ram City Hospital) and Hotel Sheraton (Max hospital), they had said.