Hospitalisation up marginally in city

New Delhi: With a surge in COVID-19 infections in Delhi, hospitals are also witnessing a slight increase in admissions, but most of these patients, doctors say, have comorbid conditions.

According to the Delhi Corona app, out of 9,491 designated COVID-19 beds, 263 (2.77 per cent) are occupied while 24 out of 1,178 ICU beds with ventilators have patients.

On June 15, 182 (1.9 per cent) patients were in hospitals while on June 8, 85 (0.88 per cent) beds were occupied.

Within a fortnight, the hospitalisation has increased by over two times.

Dr Sumit Ray, head of the department of critical care medicine at the Holy Family Hospital, said that there was no need to panic.

"The infection is obviously all around. The number of admissions has increased while the ICU patient numbers have remained steady. We have two patients on the ventilator. The floor admissions have increased but only one patient is on oxygen support while the patients on ventilators have comorbidities," he said.

His views were endorsed by Dr Subhash Giri, medical director at the GTB Hospital, who said that the number of suspected COVID-19 patients at the fever clinic has seen a rise and the lab positivity rate is also reflective of the increase in cases in the national capital.

"Two weeks back, there were a total of two patients in the COVID area and those too were incidental cases. They had been diagnosed with other conditions but during investigations, they were found to be COVID-19 positive. Presently, there are around 14 patients in our hospital," he said.

He said that barring two, the others patients admitted to the hospital have different primary illnesses while COVID-19 is a secondary condition.

"Some had a severe infection and a few patients were put on ventilator also. There have been mortalities, but COVID-19 was not the primary reason for the deaths. The cases are coming in clusters in a family or in neighbourhood," he added.

Meanwhile, Delhi has recorded 928 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 7.08 per cent and three more fatalities due to the viral disease in a span of 24 hours, according to data shared by the city health department on Wednesday.

A total of 13,099 tests to detect the infection were conducted on Tuesday, the department said. With the fresh cases, Delhi's Covid tally has gone up to 19,24,532, while the death toll due to the disease has climbed to 26,239, it added. with pti inputs