Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the national capital, authorities have allowed all Coronavirus facilities of the city government to engage MBBS students in fourth and fifth years, interns and others to assist doctors on duty at a fixed honorarium, as per an order issued by the health department.
The order, dated November 18, comes at a time when hospitals are again getting swamped with infection spreading faster every single day, leading to an overwhelming number of deaths in the last several days.
Delhi recorded 7486 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 5 lakh, even as 133 new fatalities, the highest single-day death count till date, pushed the toll to 7943.
As per the order, all COVID-19 hospitals of Delhi government have been allowed to "engage fourth and fifth year MBBS students, interns and BDS doctors to assist duty doctors at an honorarium of Rs 1000 (8 hours shift) and Rs 2000 (12 hours shift) per day".
In case of interns, the honorarium would be over and above their stipend, it said.
RGSSH, a dedicated coronavirus facility under the Delhi government has 200 ICU beds with ventilators, all occupied, while at LNJP Hospital, another dedicated facility, only seven such beds out of the 200 were available at 12:30 PM, according to online Delhi Corona dashboard.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday had told reporters that more beds are planned to be added at LNJP Hospital.
However, the number of doctors there at present is adequate, he had said.
