Bed occupancy falls to 33%, ICU at 63% in Ghaziabad - Hindustan Times
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Bed occupancy falls to 33%, ICU at 63% in Ghaziabad

By, Hindustan Times, Ghaziabad
May 27, 2021 03:55 PM IST

On May 25 night, the overall bed occupancy stood at just 33% (1133 of 3409 beds occupied), and 499 of the 785 ICU beds occupied, according to official data. On May 1, there was not a single ICU bed available and the overall occupancy was 83.5% (where there were 3262 beds).

There are considerably more vacant Covid beds available in Ghaziabad than what was the case at the starting of the month.

An expert said that the curfew from April 30 had helped in reducing the stress on hospital beds with reduction in cases.(PTI file photo. Representative image)
An expert said that the curfew from April 30 had helped in reducing the stress on hospital beds with reduction in cases.(PTI file photo. Representative image)

On May 25 night, the overall bed occupancy stood at just 33% (1133 of 3409 beds occupied), and 499 of the 785 ICU beds occupied, according to official data. On May 1, there was not a single ICU bed available and the overall occupancy was 83.5% (where there were 3262 beds).

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From April 29 to May 5, the weekly average test positivity rate was nearly 41%, which dropped to 18% the next week and 5.37% the week after that. From May 20 to 26, the average weekly positivity rate was 3.78%.

An expert said that the curfew from April 30 had helped in reducing the stress on hospital beds with reduction in cases.

“During the period (April-May), the cases had spiked considerably, and we were also short on options. However, the situation has almost normalised now with all types of beds easily available in hospitals,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer. “We still have 229 patients on ventilators and another 89 on oxygen concentrators. The recovery case in such Covid patients is slow. We expect the ICU situation will further improve after 10-15 days.”

Doctors said that the second wave saw patients taking longer to recover and hence, occupied beds for longer too.

“Last year, the patients generally recovered within 7-8 days even in the ICU. But this year we witnessed recovery time of 10-15 days,” said Dr Sangeeta Garg, chief medical superintendent of Yashoda Hospital at Nehru Nagar.

Others said that patients still on ventilator-support pose a major concern.

“After the partial corona curfew was announced, the shortage of beds continued till May 10, but thereafter the cases started to decline,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association.

On Wednesday, district officials said that they have marked a 10-bedded paediatric ICU (PICU) and another 10-bedded neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Santosh Medical College, which is a government-acquired tertiary care Covid facility.

“The arrangements are being made to tackle any shortage of beds in case a third wave happens. It is believed that children may be more affected at the time. Private hospitals have been asked to create PICU wards with 10 beds each. We will also start with 60-bedded dedicated healthcare facility for children,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

Experts have earlier said that there is no evidence to support the claim that children will be impacted in the event of a third wave. They said that infected children may have a greater share in the overall infections in than previously but that would be because many adults would have got their vaccinations by then.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh – from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade.

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