AHMEDABAD: On Sunday, Gujarat scaled another alarming peak, recording 10,340 new cases and 110 deaths. At 61,647 cases, the state battled an all-time high number of active patients with almost all private and government hospitals nearly full.
As Gujarat fights an unprecedented health crisis triggered by the pandemic, TOI spoke to CM
Vijay Rupani who said that the biggest priority is adding
oxygen beds in the state.
“In the past one month, we have increased the number of
Covid beds by 37,000 – from 41,000 on March 15 to 78,000 on April 18. Overall, the state now has 35,000 oxygen beds and 10,000 ICU beds,” said Rupani.
With more and more patients getting hypoxic and needing oxygen to breathe, the state will add 8,000 beds with oxygen supply in the next 10 days. “We are adding oxygen beds on a war footing,” the CM said.
It needs mention that Gujarat ranks among 10 states recording highest daily cases and five states registering highest daily deaths in India.
Terming oxygen as the biggest focus area for the state government for Covid treatment, the CM said that during the last wave in November-December the daily oxygen requirement was 250MT. “In this wave, it has increased by three times to 830MT. It can be interpreted both ways – the number of patients requiring oxygen has increased, and the number of beds with oxygen supply has also increased,” he said.
Rupani said that the notification is already issued that all the oxygen manufacturing in and around four major cities – Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot – would be diverted for medical usage only to meet the rise in demand.
The CM said that eight municipal corporations are key to contain the viral spread. “The eight cities account for 65-70% of the daily cases. If we can control the new cases there, we can control the overall situation. Thus, the testing is ramped up to quickly find new cases, containment zones are increased and new beds are added,” said Rupani.
He pointed at the upcoming 900-bed medical facility in Ahmedabad at Gujarat University Convention Centre in coordination of DRDO as one such example. “We are starting the trial run for it on April 22. The facility can be expanded for 500 more beds,” he added.