Rajasthan’s largest Covid treatment facility nearly full

In February this year, only 11 Covid-19 patients were admitted in the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) – the largest government-run Covid treatment facility in the state. It has 1,200 beds.

Staff members at the hospital say that at that time, they hoped that the pandemic was largely under control.

Two months later, the corridors of multiple floors of the RUHS are cluttered with extra beds, some of which are occupied by Covid-19 patients. In the second wave, 85 percent of the beds at RUHS are already occupied. On Monday, Rajasthan saw 11,967 fresh Covid-19 cases along with 53 deaths. With 2,011 patients, Jaipur saw the highest number of cases in the state.

“We had to put up around 70-100 extra beds yesterday (Sunday) as the wards have become full. We have a capacity of 1,200 beds and during the first wave the maximum patients admitted at once were 707. In the second wave, we have already surpassed that with 1,025 patients admitted as of today (Monday),” RUHS superintendent, Dr Ajeet Singh, told The Indian Express on Monday. He added that in February, only 11 Covid-19 patients were being treated in RUHS, before the numbers increased in the past two months. He added that the daily oxygen consumption in RUHS is 2,000 cylinders.

“Per day the number of admissions is more than 200 people. In the past four days, around 900 people were admitted and 500 discharged. The extra beds have been installed after expecting the high number of admissions in coming days,” said Singh.

Senior officials of the Health Department said beds are being added to hospitals across the state with the government expecting 30,000 cases per day in the coming days.