Even as Mysuru is gearing up for the low-key Dasara fete amidst the COVID-19 fear, the testing ahead of the festivities has been stepped up and the number of swab tests in government-run labs, including the District Hospital and the MMCRI’s K.R. Hospital, has crossed the 2 lakh-mark. Until Tuesday, 2,03,101 samples had been tested in Mysuru’s COVID-19 labs.
Also, the number of tests in the private labs is inching closer to the 30,000-mark. Till Tuesday, 28,004 samples had been tested in the private labs across Mysuru.
The Mysuru district administration had sought two-weeks’ time to show results in reigning in the pandemic whose cases had been spiralling since the past few days, with cases ranging between 800-1,000 a day. On the government’s order, it identified the focus area - stepping up testing and isolating the contacts of the infected persons within the specified time as the majority of cases reported daily involve them – for stopping the infection from spreading to the larger community.
If the Mysuru COVID-19 figures of the last three days are analysed, the daily tests were on the rise in the government labs but they are within 4,000 per day. The number of tests done on Tuesday was 3,970 while it was 3,347 and 3,014 on Monday and Sunday respectively.
The testing in private labs seems picking up as 636 tests were done on Tuesday and 633 on Monday. The tests include RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs).
Meanwhile, the info shared on beds by the private hospitals following a meeting here recently has perhaps helped the district administration and the Department of Health and Family Welfare in tackling the pandemic situation, especially the fatality rate.
The details of beds, including occupied and vacant, in private hospitals are now being updated daily after the government and the district administration directed them to set aside 50 per cent of beds for treating COVID-19 patients.
The data was shared with the district health officer (DHO), and hospitals cannot say “no beds” to patients since the department can question them for denying the beds when they are available as per their assertion.
As on Tuesday, out of 875 beds in private hospitals for COVID-19, 685 beds had been occupied and 190 were vacant. All put together, the total number of beds available in Mysuru, including government and private facilities, was 3,231, and 1,691 beds had been occupied till Tuesday with 1,540 beds vacant.
Majority of asymptomatic patients are home isolated. Those facing problems in home isolation are opting to stay in Dedicated COVID-19 Health Care Centres and COVID-19 Care Centeres (CCCs).
The active cases in Mysuru stand at 6,843 and nearly 80 per cent of the cases are in home isolation (5,049 cases). As many as 681 patients are being treated in private hospitals and about 512 patients are in government-run COVID-19 Care Centres. As many as 179 patients are in private CCCs.
Plans are also afoot to set up new swab collection centres, including mobile labs, and testing labs for increasing the number of tests to an additional 3,000 to 4,000 a day.
