Omicron effect: Hospitals keeping beds ready

Kumaran P. | NT

Bengaluru: The State government is beefing up its health infrastructure to meet any eventuality in the wake of the Omicron stain of Covid-19. The health ministry has asked government-run hospitals to keep extra beds ready, in case there is a rise in Covid cases. On the other hand, the ministry, the city administration has been claiming that the cases of Delta variant are stable. But they are tight-lipped as to why they are keeping beds ready in hospitals.

As for the caseload, Dr C Nagaraja, director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) said, “We just started a new building with 300 beds and we have other beds which were being treated for Covid-19 and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases over the last one and half years. Even this new building we can use for treating chest diseases, but the government has asked us to create this as a makeshift hospital for new Covid cases and we are ready with 300 beds now.”

As on Saturday, the State recorded a total of 320 positive cases of COVID-19, 317 patients were discharged and in Bengaluru 190 cases were reported. With these numbers, the experts also say there is no rise in cases.

An expert said, “Currently the Covid-19 Delta variant cases are not rising sharply, but we need to ramp up the testing in the city. The municipal chief commissioner has asked the health officers to increase testing from 50,000 to 60,000 across the city. We might see some rise in numbers because of increased testing.”

KC General Hospital in Malleswaram has currently set aside 80-85 beds. Dr Venkateshaiah, medical superintendent, said, “We have 45 ICU beds, 35-40 HDU beds kept aside for Covid treatment. This can be used at any point of time.”

In the same fashion, CV Raman Nagar hospital too said that they have exclusive Covid-19 beds which are ready to be used. Dr Radhakrishna, medical superintendent at the hospital said, “We have been running completely for Covid over 20 months and we have all the facilities ready. Around 170 beds have been kept aside for coronavirus.”

However, a senior official said, “These are all part of the prep-up plan of the government. We may or may not see a rise in Omicron cases. So, we clearly do not know what is going to happen. This time we have also asked Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital to be ready.”