Coimbatore district has enough beds to handle COVID-19 cases: Health Dept.

The total bed strength in 14 government-run hospitals was 2,039 against the 932 patients under care as on August 26.

The COVID-19 ward at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Coimbatore district is currently having adequate number of beds to take care of COVID-19 patients, according to the Health Department.

As per the bed strength data shared by the Department, the district had 6,085 beds for COVID-19 patients, scattered over hospitals and COVID-19 Care Centres (CCC) in the government and private sectors against 2,910 active cases as on Wednesday.

The total bed strength in 14 government-run hospitals, including the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (555 beds) and the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital (450 beds), was 2,039 against the 932 patients under care as on August 26.

The 20 private hospitals that were handling COVID-19 cases had 1,570 beds against 635 patients who were under admission till Wednesday.

In the government sector, 16 CCCs were currently functional in the government hospitals, schools and primary health centres. The total bed strength was 356 and 52 asymptomatic patients were in these facilities as on Wednesday.

Similarly, there were 2,120 beds in CCCs in private facilities, including Codissia Trade Fair Complex till Wednesday. As many as 847 patients were under care in these facilities.

Sources with the Health Department said mild cases of COVID-19 accounted for the majority of the active cases in the district, for which the district administration and the Department were planning to increase the bed strength in CCCs.

As on Wednesday, 2,580 patients out of 2,910 patients, who were under treatment, were categorised as ‘mild’ cases. While the number of severe cases stood at 69, the remaining 261 cases were categorised as ‘moderate’. The categorisation was done based on symptoms of the disease and comorbidity in patients.

An official, who is part of COVID-19 management in the district, said efforts were also under way to increase bed strength in CMCH and ESI Hospitals to handle more severe cases. Also, the Health Department was expecting more cases in the district in the coming days, mostly more than 400 cases per day.

The official added that Collector K. Rajamani issued strict instructions to private hospitals to admit COVID-19 patients after complaints emerged that a very few of them were refusing to admit severe cases of COVID-19 and referring such cases to CMCH and ESI Hospital.