PUNE: There has been a slight increase in Covid hospitalizations in Pune. Doctors at some of the biggest facilities in the city said the uptick in hospitalisations started after November 12.
“We have noticed an upward trend in Covid-19 hospital admissions. This gradual rise is similar to what we saw in March and April. We have started mobilizing our resources,” said Ruby Hall Clinic’s medical director Sanjay Pathare.
Ruby Hall Clinic’s Covid bed occupancy had dipped below 50 just a month ago.
“But that has slowly started to increase. Occupancy has been over 80 for the last few days,” Pathare said.
Sassoon hospital’s Covid occupancy during the peak of the pandemic was 550 beds. “The lowest bed occupancy was 45. Currently, we have 60
patients undergoing treatment,” said the hospital’s medical superintendent, Ajay Taware.
Another major hospital treating Covid in the city, Deenanath Mangeshkar, which had 97 patients at its lowest bed occupancy, now has over 100 people in care. “We have 113 coronavirus patients at our hospital. There has been no sharp increase, so far,” said the hospital’s medical director, Dhananjay Kelkar.
There has been mounting concern about a possible second Covid wave world over.
Countries in Europe — the second worst-hit region after Asia — started seeing a decline in caseloads, but infections rose again in October. Scientists said weather and swift easing of curbs had a role to play. In the Middle East, more than 60% of all new cases last week were reported from Iran, Jordan and Morocco. Cases are also up in Pakistan and Lebanon.
But experts studying the spread here said social factors too play a role. Increased movement during unlocks and festivals may have seeded new infections, they said. “Entry of a large number of people, who had not yet encountered the virus, into Pune’s Covid-stabilized population is disturbing an equilibrium and causing small spikes. Some of these patients will need hospitalisation. But it would be premature to call this the ‘second wave’,” said epidemiologist Amitav Banerjee.
Banerjee added that people who were at home through most of the lockdown phase had also started stepping out during the festivals.
“This is causing a dilution in ‘herd immunity’ levels, he said, while adding that precautions must be maintained. “Respiratory infections spread more indoors. We see people wearing masks in the open (where there is low transmission risk). But once they enter a shop, for example, they pull down masks to speak, at close proximity,” Banerjee said.