Thiruvananthapuram: The district, over the past
one month, has been witnessing a slow rise in
daily Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, ICU and ventilator occupancy has declined drastically compared to the peak months. While the
district managed to avoid an immediate Covid surge post local body election, Christmas and New Year festivities, weekly admissions to medical college hospital and CFLTCs (Covid first-line treatment centre) increased by 54% and 128%, respectively between the first week of January and first week of February. Since the second week of October, weekly CFLTC admissions had slumped from 901 to 109 in the fourth week of December.
Since the first week of January, admission to first-line treatment centres on a weekly basis grew from 142 to 325 by the first week of February. During the same period, MCH weekly admissions too increased from 135 to 208. Weekly admissions at MCH for Covid-19 had remained below 200 for 10 weeks till it touched 207 in the last week of January.
Even with an evident rise in number of admissions to first-line centres and medical college, total ICU occupancy in the district had shown a 30% fall from the peak months. By the end of October, ICU occupancy was as high as 202 and as on February 10, it stood at 144. The load of patients requiring critical care categorized under Category C has also shown a marked dip by 50% from the peak months.
As for category B patients admitted in Covid hospitals, secondary-line treatment centres and private hospitals, the fall from peak has been 60%. The officials associated with Covid-19 management highlight Covid hospital occupancy trends. “A study of weekly average shows that active cases on ventilator dropped from 1.77% in December to 0.9% in the first week of February. Ventilator occupancy had touched the peak of 1.79% in the last week of December which came down to 1.77% by December 30.
The authorities, though wary of rise in daily admissions, are assured about the available infrastructure in first-line and second-line treatment centres. As on February 13, of the 1,156 beds in first-line treatment centres, 804 beds were vacant. In secondary-line centres, 219 beds are ready and as on February 13, 109 beds were vacant. Also, 49% ventilator facility is vacant in the district at present and 59% of ICU is now occupied.
The number of weekly cases has not crossed 3,000 in the past three weeks. However, the weekly cases which had dropped from 2,878 to 2,762 in last two weeks of January increased to 2,793 in the first week of February.