PANAJI/ MARGAO: Goa on Thursday witnessed its record single-day
spike as 757 Covid-19 cases were reported, putting the state’s health infrastructure in tatters with all the nearly 550
beds, including 75 in private hospitals, occupied.
The 318-bed
South Goa district hospital—the designated Covid hospital—was full and so was its nine-bed
ICU. The step down ITU, which had nine beds commissioned on Wednesday, had eight of its beds occupied, as hundreds of patients continued to fill up its emergency room.
With the steep rise in cases, Goa’s case positivity rate has accelerated to 28%, which is probably the highest in the country.
The tally of active cases in the state rose to 5,681, while it reported five casualties, also the highest toll in the past several months, as the mortality count went up to 863. In all, nine people have died over the past 48 hours.
Thursday’s record spike surpasses the previous highest of 740 positive cases reported on September 12, last year.
“We had 171 cases come to the emergency room of the
hospital on Wednesday, the highest number we have seen since the hospital was commissioned in September last year. Today, the emergency room was also teeming with fresh cases,” a senior doctor at the South Goa district hospital said.
To tide over the situation, two more assistant matrons from Goa Medical College and Hospital were deputed to the South Goa district hospital on Thursday, while four more ward nurses were expected to join on Friday to ensure optimal functioning of all wards, sources said.
Health minister Vishwajit
Rane said the bed capacity would be further scaled up and added the ESI hospital, Margao, will also begin catering to Covid patients requiring hospitalisation.
“ESI hospital will also be starting ICU and ITU units to manage rising cases,” Rane said.
ESI hospital, which treated Covid patients during the first wave of the pandemic last year, is currently notified as a Covid care centre—of the 86 beds available, almost half of them are occupied—where most of those admitted are asymptomatic.
At the 60-bedded Covid care centre at Fatorda, 25 beds were occupied by Thursday, sources said.
The surge in infections in urban areas continued with Panaji, Porvorim, Margao, Candolim, Mapusa and Ponda reporting a sharp rise for yet another day. On Thursday, Margao alone had 660 active cases.
“ESI hospital has to be reopened for Covid patients, there’s no choice. It can function as a step-down hospital,” a health official said, describing the rise in Covid cases and hospital admissions as “exponential” and “worse than last year”.
“There are excellent facilities available, but the public is carefree and careless and as a result doctors and nurses are now fatigued. This cannot go on and on,” a healthcare worker said.
The recovery rate, which has been on the decline for the past several days, dipped further to 90% on Thursday. Until last month, it ranged between 96% and 97%. As many as 182 patients were cured over the past 24 hours, even as there were 97 hospital admissions and 367 patients under home-isolation.
The South Goa district hospital, which treats mild to severe Covid cases, created an additional male ward after the existing one filled up quickly as it has been receiving more male admissions compared to female. The 15-bed obstetrics ward has pregnant women and those who have delivered. The hospital also has six new-born babies.