SOS calls reduce as B’luru sees dip in Covid cases, say helplines, volunteer groups

Bengaluru: With the city witnessing a decline in Covid cases over the last week, employees of Covid helplines and volunteer groups say that the number of emergency calls has also reduced since a few days

Bengaluru: With the city witnessing a decline in Covid cases over the last week, employees of Covid helplines and volunteer groups say that the number of emergency calls has also reduced since a few days.

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The number of new cases in the city started dropping from May 10 after weeks of witnessing a surge. According to experts, the marginal drop in daily new cases was mainly due to a decrease in the number of tests the state has been conducting in the past few weeks. In the wake of surge in Covid-19 cases, Karnataka on April 27 imposed a lockdown, which will continue till May 24. On May 1, the state had reported 44,438 new Covid-19 cases, which increased to 50,112 on May 5. The state logged 41,664 new infections on May 15, according to the health department. Karnataka has seen a drop in the number of tests being conducted every day from 177,982 on May 1 to 118,345 by May 15, as per data.

On the ground, however, relief workers say there is considerable change in the situation during the past three days. HS Gopal, who is in charge of the 1912 helpline, which has been catering to the bed requirements in the city, said that there has been a considerable reduction in the number of calls.

“On Sunday and Monday, we got 3,587 and 2,500 calls respectively, which is at least 1,000 calls less than what we used to get during the peak. There is a definite reduction in the number of calls. Still, there is a demand for ICU beds, but the calls for other beds and oxygen beds have come down,” he said.

1912 number was originally the helpline for Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited or BESCOM. Once the cases in the city started to rise, the employees of the BESCOM call centre were deputed to Covid-19 helpline duties. “We had around 60 personnel working for the Covid-19 helpline and 30 working for BESCOM helpline, with the reduction in calls we might move some employees back to BESCOM since there are multiple power fluctuations due to rains,” Gopal added.

Tauseef Ahmed, a volunteer with Mercy Mission, a group of volunteers who were helping with the relief activities especially providing beds, medicines and oxygen, said even they are seeing a reduction in the number of SOS calls. “We don’t keep a track of the number of calls we get in a day. So, I can give you my example, I used to take around 25-30 emergency calls every day. Now it has come down to 8-10,” said Ahmed.

He added that they still get calls for the ICU beds, however, calls for oxygen and Remdesivir have dropped drastically. “We are getting a lot of calls for Amphotericin, which is needed for treating black fungus, Tocilizumab injection and ICU beds. For others, demand has come down,” he said.

Samyukta Hornad, an actor, who has been helping patients with oxygen supply and hospital bed information too said that the number of calls per day has reduced. “Especially when it comes to oxygen what we hear is that that BBMP is able to provide adequate oxygen, which wasn’t the case earlier, and volunteers are helping hospitals with oxygen,” she said.