As of 6.30 pm on Saturday, Gurgaon was down to only one vacant ICU bed and one vacant ICU ventilator bed. Vacant oxygen beds were also down to only 12.
Even as Gurgaon sees a surge in cases and a massive shortage of beds, officials Saturday said medical infrastructure is being ramped up with around 200 beds for Covid patients expected to be added in the “next three days”.
As of 6.30 pm on Saturday, Gurgaon was down to only one vacant ICU bed and one vacant ICU ventilator bed. Vacant oxygen beds were also down to only 12.
At a meeting to discuss the Covid situation in the district on Saturday, officials said following Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Yash Garg’s directions that 60 per cent beds in the general category and 75 per cent beds in the ICU and ventilator categories at all hospitals be reserved for Covid patients, 1,000 beds will be added. Prior to the order, hospitals were reserving 40 per cent general beds and 70 per cent ICU and ventilator beds for Covid patients.
Apart from this, Civil Surgeon Dr Virender Yadav said the number of beds for Covid patients at ESI Hospital has been increased from 58 to 72, and 25 oxygen beds each have been arranged at sub-divisional level civil hospitals in Sohna and Pataudi.
Read more:Not enough passes, curfew in Delhi impacts manpower in Gurugram’s factories
Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh also said 100 beds have been arranged at the SGT Medical College recently, and 20 beds with oxygen as well as five with ventilators will soon be added to these. “In the next three days, efforts will be made to arrange another 200 beds, of which 20 will be ventilator beds,” said Singh.
According to officials, efforts are also being made to increase the number of beds with oxygen facility through collaborations with corporate companies under CSR. A total of seven community centres have been identified for this. In addition, hospitals are also tying up with hotels, guest houses, and other establishments to increase the number of beds.
At the meeting, Garg also suggested that ESI Hospital in Manesar be taken over along with the community hall next to it, between both of which 150 beds could be arranged for Covid patients. Furthermore, he said the administration is also speaking to some big companies and NGOs to create hospitals for Covid patients.
The Gurgaon district administration has recently also created a section on its Covid web portal where people can register for hospital beds.
Applications are perused by a team of doctors and beds are arranged depending on the requirement and criticality of the patient. At Saturday’s meeting, Additional Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar said a total of 525 applications have been perused by the team of doctors, of who only 80 were found to require admission.
“These people were given beds on a first come first serve basis, as beds kept becoming vacant,” he said.
Gurgaon crossed 23,000 active Covid cases, with 3,136 people testing positive for the infection on Saturday. Of the 23,046 active cases, 22,015 are in home isolation.
