Udupi: With ICU beds running out, DC urges people to test for Covid-19 early

UDUPI: With little or no room left to manoeuvre in ensuring that ICU beds in the district are available to the needy, district administration has launched an all-out drive to educate people not to pay heed to rumours or misinformation regarding the pandemic that abounds on social media. This concerted misinformation campaign has seen authorities deal with a scenario where people in the last stage of their lives land up for treatment.
Udupi DC G Jagadeesha told TOI that the impact of this campaign that has lulled people into false sense of complacency and believe in home remedies that are supposed to keep the pandemic at bay has proved fatal to many. “Some of the patients with oxygen level below 40% have landed up at the hospital. With all 82 ICU beds in the district full, this situation will only worsen unless people test at first sign of symptoms,” he said.
The administration has its own limitations in adding ICU beds to deal with the situation for it requires trained manpower that is in short supply, he said. Situation of critically ill patients coming for treatment and some of them even being brought dead should serve as a reminder to people not to underestimate the severity of the pandemic, which social media messages have projected as a new business model that is helping the health sector, he rued.
Noting that this situation has come about in the last 15-days, Jagadeesha said prior to that not even 25% of the ICU beds in the district were getting filled. Even now, hardly 10% of the 500-odd oxygenated beds in the district are being utilised and requirement for this too will not arise if people test early and their treatment starts early. The 20 ICU beds – 10 each in Kundapura and Karkala taluk too are full, DC said, underscoring severity of the issue.
“We are now in the process of adding 10 additional high flow oxygen systems in the taluk hospitals in Karkala and Kundapura,” DC said. Delayed testing is thwarting official efforts to trace the source. Eighty-six of the 112 Covid-19 related deaths as on September 6 involved people aged 55 and above, Jagadeesha, adding the fatality rate in the district was less when the testing was up as it helped authorities keep tabs on its spread, he surmised.