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Bengal ‘yet to touch Covid peak’ but Kolkata is already running out of hospital beds

State database shows nearly 500 vacant beds, but a check with a few hospitals shows these numbers aren't entirely reliable. This at a time experts warn the Covid wave is yet to peak in Bengal.

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Kolkata: On 16 May morning, the first day of Bengal’s second complete lockdown since the pandemic started last year, the West Bengal Covid management database showed there were many hospital beds available in the Kolkata metropolitan area: 230 in private hospitals and 228 in government facilities.

However, when The Print called six of the hospitals — four private and two government — all but one private facility said they were running full and had patients waiting. Most of the beds shown as available on the database appeared to have been claimed immediately.

The state has 507 Covid hospitals in all, which include government facilities, government requisitioned private hospitals, private hospitals, satellite facilities run by hospitals and safe homes (isolation centres), according to the state’s health department database. Put together, these facilities have 33,257 beds in total, which include regular beds without oxygen support, oxygen beds, high-dependency unit (HDU) beds, critical care unit (CCU) beds, CCU beds with ventilators and regular isolation beds at safe homes, makeshift facilities and satellite centres.

However, the demand largely is for oxygen beds, which are mostly available in government and private hospitals. The state database shows that government hospitals have no CCU beds vacant, while private hospitals have no more than two dozen CCU beds left.

Just through with an eight-phase election marked by Covid protocol violations in large campaign rallies, West Bengal is grappling with a surge in infections that its health infrastructure is struggling to keep up with.

As of 15 May, the state recorded 1,31,948 active cases, and it’s adding around 20,000 cases daily on average, with around 19,000 recoveries and around 140 deaths.

Kolkata and the adjoining North 24 Parganas district contribute over 40 per cent of the daily and total active cases in the state. On 15 May, Kolkata recorded 3,951 new cases (city), which took its active case tally to 26,307. North Parganas had 26,047 active cases on the same day.

So far, in a population of 10 crore, the state has fully vaccinated 37,14,322 people, while 88,46,834 have received the first vaccine dose.

This week was marked by some promising numbers, possibly on account of the partial lockdown that was imposed by the Mamata government since 5 May. The Trinamool Congress government shut down malls, restricted operation timings for shops and shopping complexes, and also closed gyms, pools, parlours, restaurants and theatres.

The state’s positivity rate dropped to 29.40 per cent Saturday, from an average 33 per cent last week. Also, the state conducted 66,000 tests Saturday, up from 58,000 Wednesday.

However, there are worries on the ground because not only are patients struggling to find hospital beds, there are reports of oxygen shortage too.

Experts, who fear Bengal’s Covid peak is yet to come, say the state has entered a critical phase as hospitals are running full, and have called for an increase in testing capacity.

N.S. Nigam, principal secretary, health and family welfare, told The Print, “We have now imposed a lockdown for two weeks. During this period, we will further augment the bed and oxygen capacity in hospitals.”


Also read: Price of West Bengal poll campaign: Covid cases rise 1500% in a month


Nightmare of hunting for hospital beds 

An official who didn’t wish to be named sought to assure the public that efforts are underway to optimise the availability of hospital beds and oxygen supplies. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had made similar assurances in an address to the media on 10 May.

But the ordeal to secure a hospital admission remains real for some. Amitabha Pal, son of a 55-year-old patient in north Kolkata narrated his ordeal to ThePrint. “My mother was running a fever for five days, and suddenly her oxygen started dipping below 80. We had been struggling to arrange a bed, but we failed each day. Later we managed to buy an oxygen cylinder at home, but could not put it in correctly. That night, we somehow managed a bed in a private hospital … but she passed away the next day. Doctors told us that we reached late, but we know how we tried to save her,” he said as he broke down. His mother died Tuesday.

Ratan Dey had travelled with his ailing wife from Nadia’s Bethuadahari to Kolkata for an oxygen bed. He was denied admission by four hospitals — in Kalyani, Barasat and two others in Kolkata. His wife, 44 years old, had fluctuating oxygen levels, between 67 and 70. Dey finally managed to admit her to a small nursing home in Behala in south Kolkata.

“In that nursing home, they did not have any ICU facility, and my wife needed ICU support. My 18-year-old son ran from pillar-to-post for an ICU bed. Two days later, after a harrowing time, we paid around Rs 50,000 cash in advance to reserve a bed and shifted her,” Dey said. His wife remains critical.

Calling the current number of infections “astronomical”, a senior doctor in Calcutta Medical College and hospital said the second wave has proven to be “way more infectious than the first one last year”. “There is a huge shortage of beds, but we are increasing numbers regularly,” he added.

A top official in the West Bengal health department said the “government has issued guidelines for the optimal use of hospital beds”.

“After five days of admission, if a patient does not run a fever for three consecutive days and his oxygen saturation level stays above 95 at room temperature, the patient should be discharged to free the bed,” the official added. “The current strain of the virus is far more virulent than what we faced last year. It is hugely infectious. We have increased the number of beds, and are still doing it in a phased way.”

About the oxygen situation in the state, the official said it was not so much an issue of availability as transport.

“We use only 10 per cent of the oxygen produced in the state. Production of oxygen is never a problem, but carrying it in cylinders and refilling is. We are boosting that infrastructure,” the official added. “We have now formed an oxygen cell at Swasthya Bhavan (the health department’s headquarters). And we have formed a monitoring team of experts who will supervise oxygen therapy at hospitals,” the official said.


Also read: New Covid lineage B.1.618 identified from Bengal, 2nd in India after ‘double mutant’ virus


Low testing

Experts have flagged the inadequacy of the state’s health infrastructure and testing set-up as well.

“The tests are still low. With a 30 per cent positivity rate in a state that just witnessed a month-long election, low testing is not acceptable,” said Kunal Sarkar, a senior doctor at Medica Superspeciality hospital.

“The government should have opened it for the private players, so that anybody could have got the test done,” he added. Currently, only private labs approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research can test samples for Covid-19.

Cautioning that Bengal is yet to hit its Covid peak, Sarkar added, “If we study Mumbai and Maharashtra, following the same travel path, we should be reaching the peak in the end of May or early June. But our hospitals are overstressed.”

“The government should have formed clusters in districts with a pool of Covid beds, taking government and private resources together,” he added.

On 10 May, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the state had taken a lot of steps to address the Covid surge. At the time, she ruled out a complete lockdown given its potential to impact livelihoods.

Speaking to reporters after the first meeting of her new cabinet, she said, “We have taken strict measures … The number of hospital beds in the state (for Covid-19 patients) have been increased to 30,000. Also, all medical college hospitals in the state have been asked to set up oxygen plants and given liberty to decide on further increase in the number of beds.”

In a report by news agency PTI, the CM was quoted as saying that her government had sought three crore vaccines from the central government for Bengal, of which one crore will be distributed among private hospitals.

“Several steps, such as suspension of local train services, are being taken to break the chain of virus transmission. Every person should strictly abide by the Covid-19 protocols, and behave like a lockdown was in force across the state,” she said.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)


Also read: 9 states tell SC they’re unlikely to get enough Covid vaccines stock for 18+ group by May-end


 

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