Pune records 446 deaths in 11 days as critical patients find it difficult to get hospital beds

With India struggling to tackle the second wave of coronavirus infections, the Pune district has reported 446 deaths in the last 11 days at an average of around 41 deaths a day.

The demand for ventilator and ICU beds have been on the rise since the last month for the treatment of critical Covid-19 patients. The civic administration has been struggling to allocate beds for them and as on Monday, there was not a single ventilator or ICU bed available in Pune.

This is despite the Pune Municipal Corporation scaling up the capacity by acquiring beds of private hospitals and increasing the intake capacity of the PMC-run jumbo Covid hospital and civic hospitals.

The PMC has also started taking over the 140-bed ESI hospital in Bibwewadi for treatment of Covid-19 patients and is also getting 40 beds from Army hospital for the treatment of critical ones.

– Stay updated with the latest Pune news. Follow Express Pune on Twitter here and on Facebook here. You can also join our Express Pune Telegram channel here.

The PMC had also recently declared guidelines for disposal of the bodies of Covid-19 patients who are dying at home. It had put the onus of handling the body upon the family members, while ensuring protective equipment was provided by the civic body.

Meanwhile, the central team that visited the city to review the Covid-19 situation has urged the civic body to ensure that critical patients get beds in the hospitals while the patients with mild or no symptoms should not be hospitalised. It also expressed the need of increasing ventilator and ICU beds, along with oxygen ones.

“The PMC has 562 ventilator beds and 492 ICU beds now. This would be increased to 587 and 500 respectively by April 15,” Srinivas Kandul, the Chief Engineer of PMC, said.

The beds at the jumbo Covid hospital in CoEP ground are also being increased from 600 to 700, including additional oxygen, ICU and ventilator ones, he added.