17% of Noida’s Covid patients in ICU, 2% need ventilator support

Noida: Patients needing critical care or ventilator support in the ICUs of L3 hospitals, the highest institutes for Covid treatment, accounted for around 17% of all active cases in the city as of June 22.
The number of patients admitted in the six Covid hospitals with L3 facilities -- GIMS, Sharda, Kailash (Greater Noida), Yatharth, Fortis and Jaypee hospitals – stood at 455 on June 22 when Noida had a total of 603 active cases (around 75%).
This does not, however, mean all these patients require higher medical intervention. Unlike Delhi and Haryana, UP does not allow home isolation of Covid patients. So anyone who tests positive has to spend the recuperating period in hospital. The L3 hospitals also have L1 (for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic) and L2 (for those showing more serious symptoms) wings.
Between these six hospitals, the number of patients on ventilator support was 12 (2% of active cases) on June 22, while 89 were in ICU (14.7%) without ventilator support. A total of 70 patients (11.6%) across wards were on oxygen support or on non-invasive ventilators.
At GIMS, the main government Covid facility, 50% of all patients in ICU have comorbidities. “We have 25 patients in the ICU and half of them, across age groups, are comorbid. Two patients are serious and on ventilator support. We’ve devised a means of very robust initial evaluation, monitoring and treatment mechanisms for all patients, especially those who are comorbid,” said Brigadier Dr RK Gupta (retd), director of GIMS. The hospital is part of the ICMR trials on plasma therapy and has so far successfully treated seven critical patients using plasma from recovered patients.
Of the 83 patients in Sharda, 15 are in ICU, of whom two are on ventilator support. “Each ward has some patients who are on oxygen support. Some patients have also been given individual oxygen cylinders as and when required. In all, there are 25-30 such patients who are moderately serious to serious,” said Ajit Kumar, joint director, Sharda hospital. Kumar added that the hospital had started serving hot ‘kadha’ (concoction of herbs, turmeric etc) to patients.
Yatharth, which started its 52-bed Covid facility only on June 12, has so far treated and discharged 22 patients. Medical superintendent Sunil Kumar said, “In a span of about 10 days, we successfully treated 22 patients, which is the highest success rate.” The hospital, he added, also engages patients in yoga and psychotherapy to boost morale.
Noida is focusing on early detection of cases so that people with symptoms can be tested and administered medicines before their condition turns serious. Narendra Bhooshan, the nodal officer in charge of Covid care, has begun contacting RWAs to identify and maintain a list of residents suffering from influenza like illness (ILI) or SARI (severe acute respiratory illness), those above 60 years old who may have comorbidities (existing ailments like diabetes, hypertension, etc), and pregnant women. “The idea is to screen and identify those who possibly have Covid at the earliest so that the administration can start treatment and help reduce the spread of infection,” said Bhooshan.