COVID hospitalisations among unvaccinated rising

Though officials at the State Health Department have been reiterating that the COVID-19 cases reported in the past few days are not severe in nature, the number of hospitalisations has more than doubled across the State.

Around 10 days ago, the overall bed occupancy was 60 including 24 oxygen, 30 non-oxygen beds and 6 ICU beds but as on Monday, it increased to 208 beds occupied including 84 oxygen beds, 113 non-oxygen beds and 11 ICU beds.

The government hospitals across the State that had no COVID-19 inpatients are slowing receiving them directly, and as referrals from other hospitals. Though severity reported in Tamil Nadu is not as bad as last year’s, the unvaccinated and those who with comorbidities are at risk.

“There were no inpatients of COVID-19 for past few weeks but, now we have got 3 inpatients. Two of them are not vaccinated and one has received only first dose. We’ll have to see if there’s a surge in cases over the next few days. Patients with mild symptoms prefer to be in home-quarantine and are being monitored,” explains Dr P Balaji, dean, Stanley Medical College and Hospital.

Patients with comorbidities are also being admitted to hospitals, given the high vulnerability and risk of severe infection. “We’ve 6 COVID patients but all are on non-oxygen beds. We admitted them because they have comorbidities,” says Dr E Theranirajan, Dean of Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

RGGGH also gets critical patients from private hospitals as late referrals. “One common factor among all the hospitalised patients is that most are not vaccinated or have taken just one dose of the vaccine,” he points out.

Meanwhile, officials from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine say that the overall hospital occupancy against availability is not high, as there are adequate beds available including oxygen beds and ICU beds, across Tamil Nadu.