Vadodara: Strange as it may seem,but the number of Covid-19 beds occupied in Vadodara city and district is higher than the combined number of active cases in the entire central Gujarat region and other districts neighbouring Vadodara.
The administration in Vadodara has been explaining the high hospitalisation on grounds that Vadodara has to cater to patients from its neighbouring districts and even beyond.
But on Tuesday, 3,468 beds were occupied in Vadodara and against these 1,522 active cases existed in nine districts including those sharing borders with Vadodara and even beyond.
The 1,522 active cases include those being treated at home and those who have been kept at hospitals or Covid care centres in their respective districts.
Sources said that it was largely serious cases and those wanting treatment in select hospitals that came to Vadodara.
If details provided from districts are to be believed the number of patients coming to Vadodara was miniscule. For instance, details from Anand district reveal that the total number of active cases reached 69. Health officials from the district said that not a single patient from the district had been referred outside and all 55 hospitalised patients were being treated in the district.
Details from Chhota Udepur reveal that the district has only 12 of the 62 active cases in hospitals. Sources said that only a couple of these were in Vadodara.
Similarly, the health bulletin by Narmada district reveals that only eight patients from the district are being treated in Vadodara.
Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel, however, explained the anomaly saying that the occupied beds included even suspected cases. “RT-PCR reports take time. Even if a person tests negative, he has to wait in the hospital till the test results arrive,” he said.
Patel added that another major reason for occupancy of beds were delays in the processes of medical insurance. “We are trying to iron out the issues and may issue a notification with new guidelines,” said Patel.
(With inputs from Jay Pachchigar and Prashant Rupera )