Despite a surge in the daily Covid-19 cases in Mumbai, only 1 percent of Covid beds are occupied in the city, followed by 2.30 percent of ICU and less than one percent of oxygen and ventilator beds are occupied. At present, the proportion of patients requiring oxygen therapy is around 1.5 percent of total active cases and hospital admissions are around 3 percent of active cases.
Moreover, health officials have urged citizens to consult a doctor if they have any Covid-like symptoms and if they are doing self testing its results should be reported to the civic body. Meanwhile, they have also asked private labs to refer to Rt-PCR positive samples for whole genome sequencing.
A senior health expert from the civic department said currently there is very less hospitalisation as most of the cases are asymptomatic and while those who are Covid positive getting recovered in 2-3 days due to which beds are vacant at all the jumbo Covid centres.
“Earlier daily use of oxygen was 50-70 metric tonnes but during the second wave it had increased to 300-350 metric tonnes per day. But now the requirement has dropped drastically and it is only required for senior citizens or patients who are critical.
Moreover, there are 41 oxygen plants across the city which means BMC is ready to handle another wave,” he said. However, the difference between proportion of critical patients out of active patients, between the first and second fortnights of May 2022 has been found statistically significant, which points to a possibility of increase in this number in the near future.
“While admissions still remain lower than the previous waves, we have directed the hospitals to stock hospital infrastructure and review all Covid facilities to ensure their smooth functioning. Ensure that all designated Covid facilities in your area are visited within a week's time and issues pertaining to any facility are resolved on priority (e.g non functioning equipment, human resources, logistics, capacity building, etc). All infrastructure details should be updated on the Covid-19 portal at the earliest,” said Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary.
“As immediate first step, please prepare inventory based on the presumption that the active cases will reach the number as in the third wave (January and February 2022) and presume about 5 percent of these active cases will require admission in hospitals. We should have a ready inventory to this extent and based on the trend of new cases in the next 10 days and how the new cases behave we should be in a position to rapidly scale it up, if necessary,” Dr Vyas added. Member of the national Covid task force and director (critical care) of Fortis Hospitals,
Mumbai, Dr Rahul Pandit said most of the patients whose immune systems are weak are more vulnerable to Covid and those who also have comorbidity and formulates the population which is above 50-60 years of age. “Senior citizens need to take extra care as they are more prone to contract covid-19 infections. Moreover, they should not delay their treatment if they show any symptoms similar to Covid. We need to protect them from the ongoing pandemic,” he said.
