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Bengal govt freeing up beds reserved for Covid-19 patients as daily cases fall
West Bengal is now reporting around 600 to 800 fresh daily Covid-19 cases. On Monday, 615 new cases were reported in the state with Kolkata registering 173 new coronavirus infections
With the daily count of fresh coronavirus cases declining, the West Bengal government has started to free up hospital beds that had been reserved in various state-run and private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.
The beds that are being freed up will now be available for non-Covid patients.
“District authorities have been asked to keep one or two hospitals or wards with adequate critical care units, high dependency units (HDU) and paediatric intensive care units (ICU) to treat Covid-19 patients. The remaining hospitals, which were earlier being used to treat such patients, may [now] be used for non-Covid patients,” said a senior health department official.
In May, just after the assembly polls, when the daily count of Covid-19 cases was around 20,000, the state had reserved around 21,900 beds in about 228 hospitals, including state-run and private facilities.
More than 2,700 ICU and HDU beds and around 1,300 ventilators had been reserved for Covid-19 patients.
West Bengal is now reporting around 600 to 800 fresh daily Covid-19 cases. On Monday, 615 new cases were reported with Kolkata registering 173 new infections.
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Several districts such as Alipurduar, Kalimpong, North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Bankura and East Midnapore and a few others reported less than 10 fresh cases.
“The state had set up around 200 safe homes with more than 11,500 beds. Barring one or two in each of the 23 districts, the rest have been asked to close down temporarily. Covid-19 volunteers who were deployed in various hospitals have been released. Medical staff including doctors and nurses deployed in Covid hospitals were being withdrawn to be stationed at hospitals from where they were sent in,” the official said.
Daily cases had shot up after the festive season in the state in October and had nearly touched the 1,000-mark with health experts blaming the spike on gatherings during the Durga Puja.
“Covid-19 safety protocols were rampantly flouted during the festive season. Many were not wearing masks, leaving aside social distancing and sanitising. We still don’t have any room for complacency,” said Sukumar Mukherjee, member of an expert committee set up last year to advise chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the pandemic situation.
Health department officials said that even though hospital beds were being freed up and safe homes were being asked to close down temporarily, the equipment installed for treating Covid-19 patients is not being dismantled yet.
“The number of Covid-19 cases is now under control compared to what it was during the peak of the second surge. Hence, the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients is being scaled down to treat non-Covid patients. There is no room for complacency, though,” said another state health department official.
