Pune Covid-19: Hospitals admitting only critical patients, crisis of Remdesivir, oxygen beds increase

As Pune records close to 100 deaths on a single day on Tuesday, hospitals are only admitting such Covid-19 infected patients who require oxygen. Nearly 80,000 patients are in home isolation and another 23,000 are in hospitals.

Large hospitals are also having to wait for their supply of antiviral Remdesivir injections while the oxygen crisis too is getting intense.

At Noble Hospital that has a capacity of six tonnes of oxygen, the daily requirement has risen to nine tonnes. “How do we manage? We are making a judicious use of the beds so that really critical patients in need of oxygen are not returned,” Dr H K Sale, executive director, Noble Hospital, said.

We need at least a minimum of 250-260 vials of Remdesivir but have just got 50 vials so far, Dr Sale said. “There are 100 patients in the OPD and we are sending them back home after prescribing medicines and follow-up with consultants.”

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At Symbiosis Hospital, CEO Dr Vijay Natarajan said there were only 25 vials of Remdesivir as against a larger requirement for the injection. “We are in the middle of a pandemic second wave and this is really tragic that we have to wait for a supply of the injection,” Dr Natarajan said. He admitted that relatives of some of the critical patients had told him that prior to this shortage the injection was available at pharmacies over the counter and some people had even stocked it at home.

“The next crisis is going to be oxygen availability and as far as possible we are also judiciously using oxygenated beds,” Dr Natarajan said.

On Wednesday Pune district recorded 99 deaths of which 55 were from the Pune city and 25 from Pimpri Chinchwad. A total of 19 deaths were from Pune cantonment and Pune rural areas.