Delhi: Lok Nayak Hospital sees zero Covid-19 patients for first time

Delhi’s biggest Covid-19 facility on Wednesday discharged the last two patients who were under treatment for the viral infection.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Mar 17, 2022 08:59 PM IST

“The last two patients with Covid-19 were discharged yesterday. Now, we have nil Covid-19 patients in the ward or the ICUs,” said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital. (File)

Delhi’s biggest Covid-19 facility, Lok Nayak Hospital, on Wednesday, discharged the last two patients who were under treatment for the viral infection and thus for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the hospital had no admitted Covid patients.

“All the Covid patients of third wave have been successfully treated & discharged from LNJP Hospital. For the first time since March 2020, zero patients of Covid-19 are admitted in the hospital. Salute to the entire medical fraternity for their dedicated service,” tweeted Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

“The last two patients with Covid-19 were discharged yesterday. Now, we have nil Covid-19 patients in the ward or the ICUs,” said Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of Lok Nayak hospital.

Kumar said though there are still patients with long Covid and post-Covid complications at the hospital, no new case was admitted on Thursday.

Lok Nayak was one of the first four hospitals to start admitting Covid-19 patients in March 2020 along with the Centre-run Safdarjung hospital, RML hospital, and AIIMS trauma centre.

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The hospital began with a 34-bed isolation ward followed by an entire 2,000-bed setup becoming a Covid-19 treatment centre with oxygen supply on almost all beds.

The hospital already treated over 10,000 Covid-19 patients and delivered hundreds of babies of Covid-19 positive mothers even before the second wave. The latest data is yet to be compiled by the hospital.

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Incidental finding of Covid-19 in patients coming in for the treatment of other diseases has also reduced since the hospital stopped testing everyone coming in for a consultation.

During the second wave and after it, all patients coming into the hospital were being tested using the quick rapid antigen test to prevent the spread of the infection within the hospital.

It was stopped after the testing guidelines were changed to do away with asymptomatic testing by the Indian Council of Medical Research amidst the third wave of the pandemic.

As per Wednesday’s health bulletin, Delhi reported 144 new cases of Covid-19 with just 42 persons admitted to city hospitals.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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