As cases mount, facilities in neighbouring districts on residents’ radar

Officials in charge of managing facilities for Covid-19 patients are turning to neighbouring districts for help, as there were no beds with ventilators, oxygen support or in intensive care units (ICUs) available across the 41 Covid-19 hospitals on Friday night, according to Gurugram Covid Combat Companion (GC3), a real-time portal managed by the district administration

Officials in charge of managing facilities for Covid-19 patients are turning to neighbouring districts for help, as there were no beds with ventilators, oxygen support or in intensive care units (ICUs) available across the 41 Covid-19 hospitals on Friday night, according to Gurugram Covid Combat Companion (GC3), a real-time portal managed by the district administration.

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Munish Sharma, the commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Manesar (MCM), who is the nodal officer for Covid-19 bed management in Gurugram district, said that administration officials are in talks with their colleagues and informing people who are unable to find beds about availability in nearby districts of Panipat, Sonepat and Jhajjar.

“Our main priority is to ensure that Covid-19 patients get medical aid and care at the earliest. Although Gurugram has a daily discharge of around 300 Covid-19 patients, due to the recent surge in coronavirus cases, beds are not readily available. Instead of wasting precious time and waiting for beds to become available, we inform patients or their families about beds available in nearby districts,” said Sharma.

As per the coronaharyana.in portal of the Haryana government, there are 497 ICU beds, 220 ventilator beds, and 2,351 general beds for Covid-19 patients across the city’s 41 hospitals.

“While the data on the availability of Covid-19 beds in Gurugram is updated on various government portals on a real-time basis, the same may not be the case in other districts, and through our colleagues and acquaintances, we keep a regular update on the situation elsewhere to help people find beds,” said Sharma.

According to the coronaharyana.in portal of the Haryana government, there are six Covid-19 hospitals in Jhajjar, with a total capacity of 294 Covid-19 beds, 47 ICU beds, and 13 ventilator beds. On Saturday evening, the district had 92 Covid-19 beds, two ICU beds, and a solitary ventilator bed available.

In Sonepat, there is only one Covid-19 hospital, with a total capacity of 380 Covid-19 beds, 40 ICU beds, and 40 ventilator beds. On Saturday evening, the district had 186 Covid-19 beds available, but no ICU or ventilator beds.

Panipat has eight Covid-19 hospitals, with a total capacity of 765 Covid-19 beds, 22 ICU beds, and 10 ventilator beds. On Saturday evening, the district had 597 Covid-19 beds available, 20 ICU, and seven ventilator beds available.

“My mother-in-law tested positive last week and her condition worsened three days ago. I called up a few hospitals in Gurugram and their staff told us that there are no beds available at the moment. I visited a hospital near Sector 29 in the hope of finding a bed, but to no avail. One of the administration officials there told me about beds available in Jhajjar. As my mother-in-law’s condition was deteriorating, I took her to AIIMS Jhajjar immediately and was able to admit her,” said Anmol Roy, a resident of Sushant Lok 1.

Before April 11, the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases was 964 on November 8 last year. Since April 11, the city’s Covid-19 cases have been continuously surging, with the city recording 4,319 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest spike since the outbreak of the pandemic.

On April 12, the city had 289 ICU beds, 177 ventilator beds, and 345 general beds available. However, since April 19, the numbers of available ventilator and ICU beds have not crossed single digits.

To improve this, on Thursday, deputy commissioner Yash Garg had issued an order to increase the reservation of Covid-19 ICU and ventilator beds from 70-75%, and Covid-19 beds from 40% to 60% across all 41 hospitals, thereby adding 1,000 more beds in the city on Friday. However, despite the increase, the city did not have any ICU or ventilator beds on Thursday and Friday night, while there was no oxygen bed left in the city on Friday night, as per the GC3 portal.

Sharma said that the situation is expected to improve soon as the administration is in the process of adding 300 more Covid-19 beds.

On Saturday evening, in a release issued by the district administration, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said that the city will be adding 200 more new Covid-19 beds, including 20 ventilator beds within the three days.