Occupancy up 5%, Gurugram to reserve more beds for Covid-19 patients

GURUGRAM: Availability of beds in city hospitals has become a cause for concern once again. In the last 10 days, bed occupancy by Covid-19 patients has gone up by around 5%. The district administration now plans to increase the quota of Covid beds in hospitals, from the current 25% to 35%.

“We are planning to increase the beds dedicated for Covid patients to 35% in Gurugram. Keeping in view the rise in cases in Haryana, the decision is pertinent,” said Vivek Kalia, HSVP estate officer-2 (Gurugram), who is in charge of hospital beds for Covid-19 cases.
Apart from increasing the number of Covid-dedicated beds, the city is also likely to reserve beds for residents of Haryana. “We had a discussion regarding reserving a portion of hospital beds only for people of Haryana. However, we are waiting for the chief minister’s approval,” said a senior official from the district administration.
A fresh surge in cases is being witnessed in Gurugram since August 21. Prior to this, the city was reporting less than 100 cases per day. This figure touched 200 on September 3, and has not gone below that mark since. Over 300 fresh cases have been reported thrice since September 6.
Gurugram had 15,249 cases as of Sunday, and 2,232 of them are active.
With the spurt in cases, pressure on hospital beds has been building up too. Of the total 4,708 beds — including 687 ICU beds and 328 with ventilators — in 46 hospitals, 1,541 have been made available for Covid patients at present. This includes 199 ICU beds reserved for Covid patients and 94 with ventilators. Currently, 598, or 39%, of the Covid beds are occupied in the city — 134 (67%) of the reserved ICU beds and 50, or 53%, of those with ventilators are already occupied.
The Covid-19 patients admitted in different hospitals across the city include 198 from Gurugram, 99 from other parts of Haryana, 59 from Delhi, 145 from Uttar Pradesh, and the remaining 97 from various other states.
On July 1, as many as 313 Covid patients were admitted in hospitals across the city. Of these, 19 were on ventilators and 80 were in ICUs. A total of 350 patients were admitted on August 1, of which only 16 were in beds with ventilators and 78 were in ICU. On September 1, around 500 Covid patients were admitted to the city’s hospitals, with 114 in ICUs and 39 on ventilators. This figure rose to 598 on September 13, including 134 in ICUs and 50 on ventilator beds.
The health department said it is well prepared for more patients requiring hospitalisation. “We are ramping up testing and Covid cases are likely to go up. We are planning to increase beds in hospitals and will try to isolate people at the earliest,” said Gurugram chief medical officer Virender Yadav.