There is current availability of around 1,300 beds. Allaying fears over availability of beds for coronavirus patients, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Thursday said “at present there was no shortage of beds in the industrial city.”
“We have adequate number of beds as of Friday. Citizens who have severe symptoms should get themselves admitted to hospitals,” PCMC Health chief Dr Anil Roy told The Indian Express.
Dr Roy said as of Friday morning, there were 1,328 vacant beds reserved for coronavirus patients in various hospitals of the industrial city. “Every day, around 100-125 patients require hospitalisation. Therefore, we don’t think there is a possibility of the industrial city immediately running out of bed space for COVID-19 patients,” he said.
The health department said of the total cases every day, 80 to 90 per cent are home isolated. “These are cases with mild symptoms. However, those who have comorbidities and are senior citizens require hospitalisation,” officials said.
Dr Roy said besides the current availability of 1,300 beds, the restarting of the jumbo hospital at Nehrunagar will also ease any possibility of bed shortage. “The Nehrunagar jumbo hospital has 800 beds. We plan to start 100 at one time. As the demand increases, we will add more adds,” he said. Dr Roy said besides the jumbo hospital, they were also starting a 300 bed Covid Care Centre at Gharkul which would further enhance the bed capacity.
PCMC additional health chief Dr Pavan Salve said, “We are confident we won’t run out of bed space as there is high demand from hospitals to accommodate COVID patients. Even if a hospital has 10-15 beds, they are seeking permission for admitting coronavirus patients. Therefore, as hospital number increases, bed strength will also go up. Currently though, we don’t have shortage of beds,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the civic health department said it has so far fined as many as 39,827 citizens for not wearing masks. “We have collected around Rs 2 crore in fine from them,” said PCMC health chief Dr Anil Roy.
At the same time, as many as 5,286 citizens have been fined for spitting in public places. An amount of Rs 8.41 lakh has been collected from them as fine.
Besides, action has been taken against as many 45,143 citizens violating norms relating COVID-19.
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