E-Paper
Ghaziabad moots bed pooling in Meerut division to reduce deaths due to Covid-19
Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases, the district administration has written to the state health department for allowing pooling in intensive care unit (ICU)
Amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases, the district administration has written to the state health department for allowing pooling in intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients in Meerut division.
Under the new concept, the medical colleges will be identified where the patients requiring ICU beds can be shifted if they find no bed available in home district. The officials have sent a proposal for inclusion of other districts such as Hapur, Gautam Budh Nagar and Meerut, which are all part of Meerut division.
According to the officials, Ghaziabad may need about 100 to 150 ICU beds as cases are rising in the district. At present, the district has only 33 ICU beds in government facilities and another 13 ICU beds reserved in private hospitals, they said.
“We have written for allowing bed pooling system under Meerut division so that patients requiring ICU beds can be shifted to the medical colleges where beds are available. During the recent visit of Niti Aayog member, Dr VK Paul, we requested for allowing us to reserve some beds in Delhi hospitals for our patients. We will follow it up. As per our estimates, we require about 100-150 ICU beds so that there is no fatality as Covid-19 cases are rising,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, Ghaziabad district magistrate.
The Ghaziabad district till July 21 reported 64 Covid-19 related deaths, of which 51 have taken place in June. According to official records, the case fatality rate went up to 3.9% in June, while it came down drastically to 0.2% during July 12-20. The present mortality rate in the district is 1.55%.
On Tuesday, Ghaziabad reported 79 new cases, taking the total to 4,126. The number of active cases is 1,282, according to the state health bulletin.
According to official figures, of 63 deaths till July 20, 39 were male patients. The officials said that one fatality took place in age group 0-20 years, while 14 deaths were in 21-40 years group. However, maximum 30 deaths took place in age group 41-60 years while 18 patients aged over 60 years had died.
“We have made an analysis of the deaths. The prime reason for most deaths in age group 41-60 years is that most of them were suffering from comorbid conditions. Overall, about 90% cases suffered comorbid conditions which resulted in fatalities. Overall, 16 cases also suffered influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) conditions,” Pandey said.
“To counter the fatality rate, we have also streamlined testing, early detection and speedy referral. With rising number of cases, we require more ICU beds and we expect that bed pooling system will be given go ahead soon,” he added.
According to official figures, till July 19, age group 0-20 years had share of 11.67% in the total 3,978 positive cases, 21-40 years had 46.91%, 41-60 years had share of 31.86% cases while those over 60 years had share of 9.56%.
“The age group 21-40 years has major share in number of positive cases as this age group is the one who moves out frequently for offices and attending other works outside,” said an officer from the district health department who wished not to be named.
