हिंदी ब्लॉग 
New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS) Citing the falling trajectory of new cases of Covid-19 in the national capital and less occupancy of the beds reserved for these patients, the Delhi government has decided to convert the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) and the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) hospitals into partial Covid care Centres from dedicated ones, said Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday.
Jain said the occupancy of the beds reserved for the Covid patients is at a comfortable level now and keeping this in view, the government has decided to turn two dedicated covid hospitals into partial covid care centers
"The positivity rate in Delhi has reduced to 0.8 per cent which was 15.26 on November 7. Now, if we test 1,000 samples for the Covid-19, then only 8 out of them are turning positive for the viral disease. Besides, the occupancy of the beds is at a comfortable level as more than 85 per cent of the beds reserved for Covid patients are lying vacant. In view of the current scenario, we are turning GTB and LNJP to partial covid care hospitals," he told the reporters.
Jain assured that other dedicated Covid hospitals will also be converted into partial or non-covid facilities soon. "It will take some time but eventually, all such facilities will be soon opened to non-covid patients," he added.
The doctors of the LNJP and the GTB and the teaching institutes associated with these hospitals have been demanding for a long time to change the status of both the hospitals from completely covid facilities to partial or non-covid care centers.
The resident doctors of the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and University College of Medical Sciences had been requesting the AAP government to turn the associated hospitals -- Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) and Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) -- into non-Covid facility and resume the clinical practices of over 3,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying there.
Dr. Sandeep Yadav, president of resident doctors association (RDA) of UCMS-GTB Hospital welcomed the decision and hoped that the students, whose clinical studies got hampered during the pandemic, can now restart their practical classes. "All the clinical activities other than Covid treatment are now at halt. Our resident doctors are losing valuable time for acquiring and refining their clinical skills. This will hamper the knowledge of the doctors who will go on to become senior physicians and surgeons. Hope they soon recover the time lost," he said to IANS.
The doctors of LNJP had even gone on a protest this month to force the government to restart the academic activities at the MAMC. Their protest ended after they were ensured action on their demand by the Delhi government. "It was a long-pending decision which finally came from the government," commented Dr. Keshave Singh, president, RDA of MAMC-LNJP hospital.
--IANS
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