'About 80-90% critical care beds in govt & pvt hosps occupied by Covid patients'

KOLKATA: The rate of Covid infection in Bengal is still on a lower side this time compared to the corresponding figures during the previous waves but there has been a steady inflow of serious patients in hospitals.

According to the available statistics, around 80-90 per cent critical beds in both the government hospitals and private health establishments have been occupied.

The state has been witnessing a Covid spike in the past few days. Many critical patients are requiring hospital admission, most of whom are elderly people with various comorbidities, sources said. Infection rate in Bengal has been hovering over 18 per cent for the past couple of days.

There has been huge demand for beds in the critical care units (CCU) ever since the Covid surge has gone up. Many of the elderly infected people were requiring critical care support.

According to health experts, during the current surge, elderly people are mostly affected with Covid. Younger generations have been complaining of fever for 3 to 4 days accompanied with cough, body aches. Many of the infected people are asymptomatic.

According to health department sources, the Beliaghata ID Hospital has around 35 CCU beds. Over 70 per cent of the critical beds have been filled up. Another government hospital ~ Sambhunath Pandit Hospital that had also extended dedicated services during the last wave has around 19 CCU beds. Almost all of them are occupied with serious patients. MR Bangur Hospital that had the highest number of dedicated beds during previous two waves has a present capacity of 20 CCU beds. Around 90 per cent of the CCU beds have been filled up. Doctors are saying that most of the patients are coming to the hospitals with mild symptoms. Most of these patients are not requiring hospital admission. But most of those who are requiring hospital admission are seeking critical care support.

"Some infected patients are getting admission as they have comorbidities while some others are requiring less oxygen. Some people are requiring more oxygen after admission. Many of these patients are found to have been suffering from pneumonia," said Dr G Mukherjee, a senior pathologist from the city. As the state registered five deaths in the past couple of days it has triggered alarm in the health sector. Various district magistrates (DMs) have been asked to increase testing as health experts fear many asymptomatic carriers are spreading the virus. The districts where the daily cases are higher have been asked to be cautious and to enforce the Covid protocol in moiré effective manner.