350 beds to be ready by next week, more may be added when oxygen supply increases: Admin

Officials of the district administration said that 350 beds to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients, equipped with ventilator support, will be made operations in a week and that more such beds may be set up once the oxygen supply to the district increases

Officials of the district administration said that 350 beds to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients, equipped with ventilator support, will be made operations in a week and that more such beds may be set up once the oxygen supply to the district increases.

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Yash Garg, the deputy commissioner for Gurugram district, said, “There are three facilities, which will be almost up and running within a week. First, the Municipal Corporation of Manesar, in collaboration with Indian Air Force, is working to convert 150 rooms into a hospital, the second is a 100-bed facility that is being built at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, and the third is another 100-bed facility that is being built by Hero in Sector 27. All these three will be functional within a week.”

As of 8pm on Thursday, eight oxygen beds were available in one of 43 hospitals, as per the district’s Covid-19 web portal. No intensive care unit (ICU) beds or ventilator beds were available, as per the portal. The city has 1,522 oxygen beds, 550 ICU beds and 198 ventilator beds.

On Thursday, Gurugram reported 3,737 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the tally of active cases to 39,682. Deaths of 13 positive patients were also reported from the district. Of the total active cases, 2,452 patients are hospitalised and 172 are at district Covid care centres. Over 37,000 positive patients are in home isolation in the district.

For the past few weeks, Gurugram has been reporting over 3,000 cases daily. Officials said that of these cases, around 10% require hospitalisation.

Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s district surveillance officer for Gurugram, said, “The trend that we have witnessed since the start of the pandemic is that 90% patients recover in home isolation itself and only 10% require hospitalisation, but still, work is being done to ensure enough beds are available for patients in case of another wave.”

Besides the three facilities proposed to start operations in the next week, more beds are being set up at a women’s college in Sector 14. However, this would be pressed into service later after sufficient infrastructure is made available, said officials.

The deputy commissioner said that the primary constraint in increasing the number of beds is the low supply of medical oxygen. At present, Gurugram is allotted a quota of 40 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen supply per day, whereas the demand is for 60 MT of oxygen per day.

“If the oxygen supply improves faster, then within the next seven days, we should be able to start the function of these 350 beds. Most of these will be for moderate cases, as severe cases will require proper hospitalisation. Our oxygen supply is increasing gradually since the chief minister himself took charge of the district. We should be getting more supply from the state over the next four days, after which the functioning of these extra beds should be even more smooth,” Garg said.

To address the shortfall in oxygen supply, the state is airlifting cryogenic oxygen containers to Rourkela, which will help increase the supply to the district as well.

Meanwhile, with projections being made that Haryana will see the peak of the second wave of Covid-19 by May 15, the district administration has also started preparing for the spike. The deputy commissioner said that various measures, including setting up of Covid care facilities by resident welfare associations (RWAs) and starting helplines for patients, among others, are being done.

“Within two days, we will be launching a portal from which patients in home isolation can apply for direct delivery of oxygen. We have also empowered the RWAs to set up small isolation centres within their communities for which we are procuring oxygen concentrators and cylinders. We are also trying to establish a treatment protocol for home isolation patients to ensure that their condition does not escalate, and they do not have to go to the hospitals. Some cases will be reported, but the maximum can be controlled,” Garg said.