Battling shortage of ICU beds, Chhattisgarh health dept sends proposal to state govt

In view of the Covid-19 surge in Chhattisgarh and shortage of hospital beds for the treatment of those infected by the deadly virus, the state government decided to reserve 50 per cent of beds at all private hospitals for Covid-19 patients, officials said on Friday

In view of the Covid-19 surge in Chhattisgarh and shortage of hospital beds for the treatment of those infected by the deadly virus, the state government decided to reserve 50 per cent of beds at all private hospitals for Covid-19 patients, officials said on Friday.

File photo: A patient lies in a bed as she is being shifted to a hospital for treatment amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). (REUTERS)

Expressing concerns over the present scenario of Covid-19 beds in the state, state health minister, TS Singhdeo said, “We certainly have a crunch of ICU beds, we have sent a proposal to the state government to acquire another 1000 ICU beds. The occupancy rate of ICU beds is very high, close to 90% as compared to the occupancy rate of beds with oxygen facility”.

“We are planning to acquire another 6000-7000 oxygen beds that would enable us to have nearly 13,000 beds combining the private and government sectors. Apart from this, we have 800 functional ventilators,” Singhdeo added.

Officials of the state health department claimed that out of 5,512 beds in private hospitals in Raipur district, 3,531 are reserved for Covid-19 patients. Similarly, out of a total of 1,532 beds of private hospitals in Durg district, 972 beds have been kept for Covid-19 patients and 285 beds are reserved for Covid-19 patients in Bilaspur.

Chhattisgarh has been witnessing more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases daily for the past ten days. On Thursday, the state reported the highest-single day spike with 15,256 new Covid-19 cases. The total caseload now stands at 5,01,500, a health official said. With 135 deaths due to the viral infection recorded on Friday, the statewide toll mounted to 5,442. The total number of active cases in the state stands at 1,21,769.

“Positivity rate on Thursday in Chhattisgarh was 28.54%, witnessing a two% drop from the day before yesterday’s 30.63%. In the last ten days, the positivity rate has been hovering between 25-30% with a cumulative death rate of 1.091%” said Singhdeo.

Chhattisgarh witnessed a total of 984 deaths in the state in the last 11 days and most of them were reported in Raipur.

“In Raipur, cases of deaths are high because people from all neighbouring districts come to Raipur for Covid-19 treatment,” said an official. Raipur recorded a total of 1,431 deaths while Durg’s reported 1,054 deaths till now,” said a senior health official.

Videos on social media reflected the alarming situation at mortuaries across the state. On Monday, 14 new cremation centres were opened in the capital to bury victim’s bodies.

“Around 34 dead bodies are in the mortuary of state-run Ambedkar Hospital in which 17 are unclaimed. The rest are given to the family members,” said a health worker working in Ambedkar hospital, requesting anonymity.

On Thursday, a video went viral in which the dead bodies were seen being ferried in a truck and garbage vans in Rajnandgaon district.

“These are one-off cases. Diligent guidelines have been laid out to carry and dispose of the dead and they are being followed. Media picks up the worst-case scenario but this is not the trend,” Singhdeo said.

“Even after the cremation centres are open, the bodies are cremated by sweepers and some volunteers and in some cases, the bodies are dumped in cremation centres for hours. The government should increase ambulances to ferry the dead bodies and police should be deployed for cremation,” said Subhash Ghosh, a volunteer working in cremating centres of Raipur (Rural).

Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government said on Thursday that it has distributed another consignment of 8,800 Remdesivir injections to different hospitals amid reports of an acute shortage.

“We have called in bids for 90,000 vials of Remdesivir with a provision for another 45,000 vials. We will soon have these injections,” said Singhdeo.

The Chhattisgarh government on Thursday banned work stoppage in all essential services in view of the Covid-19 crisis. The order, under the Chhattisgarh Urgent Service Maintenance and Prevention of Discontinuance Act 1979, prohibits work stoppage in health facilities across all government and private medical institutions besides the sale of medicines, transport, ambulance services, supply of water and electricity, and management of food and drinking water.