The State is going through an extremely dangerous situation involving COVID-19, wherein disease transmission continues to be intense and the rising patient load is threatening to breach the State’s health system capacity, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
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Addressing the media here on Wednesday, he said as of now, the situation did not warrant any panic as the health system had enhanced its surge capacity in the best way possible to manage increasing hospital admissions.
However, the situation would not remain the same and if the surge in new cases did not come down immediately soon, no facility created by the State would be enough to contain the burgeoning numbers, Mr. Vijayan said.
Revealing details on the current occupancy status in the State’s hospital beds and ICUs, he said that nearly 61% of the ICU beds and 27.3% of ventilators in the government sector were currently occupied.
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Of the 7,085 ICU beds in private sector, 1,037 were currently occupied by COVID patients
A total of 1,975 out of the 3,231 oxygen beds in medical colleges in the State were currently occupied, of which 1,429 were being used for COVID care.
About 52% of the oxygen beds (3,001 beds) under the hospitals in the Directorate of Health Services and 66.12% oxygen beds (2,990 beds) in the private sector were also occupied as of now.
The State’s oxygen position was comfortable at present and the supply-demand position was being monitored on a daily basis and the supply logistics managed at districts.
Mr. Vijayan appealed to people not to crowd hospitals seeking admission, just because they had been tested COVID positive, as this will adversely affect the outcome of those patients whose disease becomes serious and who have to be treated in hospitals.
People with mild symptoms can very well afford to stay on home care, by following all the instructions given by healthcare workers and keeping in touch with doctors over tele-consultation.
Private hospitals should also admit only those patients who require hospital care so that the hospital beds are reserved solely for serious patients.
Going by the surge in cases, more COVID first line treatment centres would have to be opened up and the government would have to take over hostels and lodges for the purpose.
The government has also decided to give temporary registrations to those medical students who have completed their course and are waiting to get registration from medical councils to engage them in COVID care activities.