As the number of fresh cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in the district, hospitalisation of patients with respiratory problems and co-morbid conditions has gone up in private hospitals.
The number of fresh cases, which hovered between 10 and 20 till the first week of January, began to increase gradually and went up to 150 within a week. It crossed the 500-mark in the third week of January and stood at 742 on Monday. There were 4,713 active cases as of Monday. Of them, 428 patients were in hospitals and 4,271 in home isolation in the district.
According to a Health official, the number of unaccounted COVID-19 patients, who do not come forward to disclose the illness to health authorities, must be at least a few times more than the accounted ones. Since they feel that the COVID-19 virus has little impact on those vaccinated, most of them prefer to be in home isolation after consulting doctors.
“It is a wave. Nearly 10% of positive cases require treatment in hospitals. Patients with comorbidities and the unvaccinated are the ones who mostly require hospitalisatiion,” says a health official.
During the first and second wave, several private hospitals were hesitant to open their outpatient’s section. However, none of them has closed the section this time around. The OP sections are flooded with people with COVID-19 symptoms.
“We get a large number of patients with complaints of fever, sore throat, body ache, tiredness and diarrhoea. More than 50% of OP patients have COVID-19 symptoms. We do get critical cases and refer them to big and corporate hospitals,” said S. Sethuraman of Mangalam Hospital in Thillai Nagar.
Dr. Sethuraman is also the chairman of the Association of Physicians of India’s Tamil Nadu chapter.
Sources said the COVID-19 wards in many of the leading hospitals in Tiruchi were full. Most patients had comorbidities and above sixty years of age.
“We have allotted a floor for admitting COVID-19 patients. Their number continues to rise and the ward is almost full. However, the situation of denying beds to critical patients similar to the previous waves does not arise this time. Almost all of them return home safely after getting cured,” said S. Manivannan, Managing Director of Kauvery Hospitals, Tiruchi.
