Number of critically ill patients sees big drop in one month

Gurgaon: The number of critically-ill Covid-19 patients has come down significantly in the past one month in the city. There has been a 33.3% drop in ICU patients, while the number of patients on ventilators has dipped by 68.3%.
As of Friday, Gurgaon’s case load is 7,483, out of which 1,053 are active. While 740 of these patients are in home isolation, the remaining 313 are admitted in 41 hospitals across the city. Of these, 19 are on ventilators and 80 are in intensive care units (ICUs).
Compared to this, a month ago on June 13, the city had 2,109 active patients, out of which 1,509 were in home isolation and 600 were hospitalised. Out of those, 60 required ventilators and more than 120 were in ICUs.
This, in turn, has meant a higher availability of beds for patients requiring critical care and less strain on the district’s healthcare system. Of the total 4,708 beds, including 679 ICU beds and 327 with ventilators, in the 41 hospitals, 1,770 have been earmarked for Covid-19 patients. Currently, 1,457 of these beds are available for Covid patients requiring hospitalisation.
The administration has been adding hospitals for Covid-19 treatment, which has also strengthened bed capacity. Till June 1, as per health department data, 23 hospitals with 1,022 beds (190 ICU beds and 71 with ventilators) were treating Covid patients. Beds for Covid patients had not been earmarked initially.
On June 7, five more hospitals were added to the list. On June 10, 10 more hospitals were asked to treat such cases and three days later, 17 more hospitals were roped in, bringing the total number of such facilities to 41.
“Active cases have come down in the city. Also, the number of daily cases being reported is nearly the same as daily recoveries. We have an 85% recovery rate, which is encouraging,” said Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, Gurgaon.
The health department said it was monitoring Covid cases, which had helped reduce the number of critical cases. So far, 112 patients have died, of which 75 had comorbidities.
“Hypertension has been a big factor in comorbidity, followed by diabetes. We are encouraging patients to keep oxymeters at home and monitor their condition regularly. So far, there have been no deaths in home isolation,” said Gurgaon CMO Virender Yadav.
Dr Manoj Goel, director, pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, said, “In Delhi and Gurgaon, more hospital beds are now becoming vacant as there are fewer critically ill patients. We are hopeful that if this trend continues for another two weeks, we might be able to flatten the curve. However, it is a crucial situation and we still need to have measures in place to keep the virus under control.”