E-Paper
Only 19 ICU beds available for Covid patients in B’luru
Bengaluru Less than 20 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and those with ventilators are available in Bengaluru on Monday, according to data from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, showing the stretching of hospitals by the virus surge that has made it harder for critically ill Covid-19 patients in the city
Bengaluru
Less than 20 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and those with ventilators are available in Bengaluru on Monday, according to data from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, showing the stretching of hospitals by the virus surge that has made it harder for critically ill Covid-19 patients in the city.
According to the real-time bed availability portal of BBMP, out of the 608 beds allocated for Covid-19 treatment in government and private medical facilities with ICU/ICU-V (ventilators), 589 are occupied, leaving just 19 beds for critically ill persons.
Data shows that out of the total 5,847 beds allocated across public and private medical facilities, 4,471 are full as of 6.23 pm on Monday, leaving 1,376 vacant.
Though the Karnataka government has claimed that there are enough beds in Bengaluru, its own data says otherwise, painting a grave picture of the city’s crumbling and inadequate healthcare infrastructure amid a raging pandemic, experts and elected representatives said.
Bengaluru is recording around 10,000 new Covid-19 positive cases a day and even if 5% of them require hospitalisation, the system could be overburdened, or could collapse, they said.
Apart from the stress on the healthcare system, there are reports about blackmarketing of critical drugs like remdesivir and hoarding of oxygen tanks, which have added to the challenges in containing the pandemic.
The situation in other parts of the state also continues to deteriorate.
“For last 2 days, there is a huge shortage of #Remedisivir in BRIMS (Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences); 286 Covid patients urgently need this injection to save their life. What was the reason behind this shortage? Who will take responsibility if something wrong happened with patients?” tweeted Eshwar Khandre, the Congress working president and legislator from the border district.
