43% of district’s active cases are in Kolhapur city

KOLHAPUR: Around 43% of the active Covid-19 patients from across the district are in Kolhapur city, keeping the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) on its toes.
According to a health official, around a month ago, the number of active cases in the city was limited to 25%. “Now, out of the 11,257 active cases across the district, 4,856 are in the city. The city is also on top in terms of number of deaths reported and case tally,” he said.
“The rising number of positive cases are now posing serious challenges in front of the authorities who are also dealing with issues like shortage of beds, oxygen and doctors,” the official added.
Civic chief Mallinath Kalshetti said the civic body has stepped up testing using both RT-PCR method and rapid antigen test kits. “This is the major reason for increase in the number of cases. We have started door-to-door survey for early detection of Covid patients. We have a challenge of rising death count and we are ensuring to bring the figures down at the earlies,” he said.
“There are adequate beds available at Covid care centres, but not all beds are oxygen-supported. Most patients seeks oxygen beds instead of regular beds and the administration is trying hard to get oxygen supply normalised,” he added.
The city has a total capacity of around 2,500 beds in Covid care centres and private hospitals. CPR Hospital and D Y Patil Hospital together have 650 beds.
“Around 800 patients are under home isolation and 250 are undergoing treatment in hotels. Further rise in cases may make the situation worse,” Kalshetti said, adding that the district administration is planning 400 oxygen beds in the district out of which almost half will be required for the patients in Kolhapur city.