ICU occupancy up, hospitalisations fall

In a 10-day period, hospitalisations have dropped but Icu-bed and ventilator-bed occupancy has seen an increase; medical experts call it an expected trend

MUMBAI: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and ventilator bed occupancy in the city has gone up in the past 10 days, even as the city’s overall Covid-19 hospitalisations have seen a dip.

The third wave , which started in the last week of December, is beginning to record a decline in caseload. After a peak on January 7, when the daily caseload was 20,971, the daily cases have been hovering around 6,000 in the past four days.

On January 11, the city had 876 Covid patients in Intensive Care Units and 526 on ventilator support in city hospitals, according to the data collated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). On that day, the total number of ICU beds was 2,728 and ventilator beds was 1,541; the occupancy was 32% and 34%, respectively.

On January 20, the number of patients on ICU and ventilator beds was 989 and 584, respectively. The total number of ICU beds on Thursday was 3114, and ventilator beds was 1512 (these are dynamic numbers, as the civic body has the capacity to expand the number of hospital beds); the occupancy was 32% and 38%, respectively.

Notably, the overall hospitalization numbers dropped from 7,283 to 4,857, even as the total hospital beds in the city went up from 22,445 on January 11 to 23,911 on January 20.

“There is always a lag of a few weeks between regular hospitalisations and ICU and ventilator

Active cases in Mumbai admissions,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the Covid-19 task force of Maharashtra. “Those who progress to severe disease require intensive care a few weeks later. Thus, ICU and ventilator admissions are more likely to rise a few days after the peak has passed,” he said.