O2 bed availability improves after drop in Covid-19 cases
From 18,000 Covid-19 cases about a week ago in the state, the cases came down to 8,398 on Tuesday
JAIPUR: The availability of oxygen beds in several parts of Rajasthan has increased for the first time during the course of second Covid-19 wave in the state, albeit ICU (intensive care unit) beds with ventilators remain scarce at hospitals, officials said.
The improvement comes as a result of the steep decline in daily Covid-19 cases in the state, they said.
According to the health department data, daily Covid-19 cases, which were hovering around 18,000 about a week ago, have come down to 8,398 on Tuesday.
Health secretary Siddharth Mahajan said that in the past few days, the doubling time of Covid-19 cases in the state has increased from 21 days to 40 days. The recovery rate is at 80 percent, which has eased the load on many hospitals, he said.
In Jaipur, which has been persistently logging the highest number of cases in the state, 627 oxygen beds were vacant as on Wednesday, as per the government portal that tracks the realtime availability of the beds. A week ago, the city had only 95 beds available to cater to fresh patients.
This has come as a major respite to the doctors who struggled to accommodate the increasing number of patients in already stretched-out health infrastructure. There is, however, a dearth of ICU beds with ventilators in Jaipur. There are 849 such beds in Jaipur, of which 831 were occupied by Wednesday, leaving only 18 available for fresh patients.
According to Dr Dheeraj
Verma, deputy superintendent, Kanwatia hospital, there is a sharp decline in the number of patients coming to the hospital. “By our estimation, the number of patients coming to our hospital has declined by almost 50 to 60 percent,” he said.
Dr Ajeet Singh, a senior doctor at SMS hospital, had said that every day admissions have come down from 150 to 90 patients these days.
Another district where the condition has improved is Jodhpur, where 302 oxygen beds were available. The city has a total of 2,038 beds, of which 1,736 were occupied as on Wednesday. ICU beds with ventilators were scare in Jodhpur too, where only three beds were vacant.
A senior official told HT that while infections have eased in past two weeks, improvement in the availability of oxygen beds can be attributed to the close scrutiny of cases coming to the hospitals. “There was a clear rush of patients to the hospital about a fortnight ago. Patients with mild symptoms and those with oxygen levels hovering at 94 also queued up to get admitted,” the official said.