The State government on Thursday told the Madras High Court that 95% of the oxygen supported beds, including Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, in the State had been occupied since the number of new COVID-19 positive cases being reported had touched nearly 25,000 and the number of active cases in the State had gone beyond 1.31 lakh.
The government hoped that the strict lockdown measures put in place from May 6 to 20 would bring down the numbers considerably.
During the hearing of a public interest litigation petition taken up suo motu by the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said there were 38,378 oxygen supported beds, including 7,743 ICU beds, in government as well as private hospitals which treat COVID-19 patients. A total of 6,517 ventilators were also available, in both government and private hospitals put together, to treat the patients.
On May 4, the overall bed occupancy rate was 67.62% in government hospitals and 71.22% in private hospitals. However, the occupancy rate of oxygen and ICU beds was 95% and steps were being taken to increase the oxygen beds with the assistance of the Public Works Department. It was planned to add 12,915 oxygen beds and so far 3,752 beds had been put to use. The rest of the 8,129 oxygen beds were expected to get ready by May 8, Mr. Radhakrishnan informed the court.
He also said that 46,453 beds had been made available in COVID care centres for treating mild and asymptomatic patients and that the occupancy over there was only 35.5%.
