Even as Kottayam continues to witness a steady decline in fresh COVID-19 cases, the number of seriously ill patients appears to have remained nearly stagnant, with the ventilator units and ICU beds in hospitals remaining almost full.
As per official estimates, the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the district has declined to 15.52% on Sunday with the number of cases coming down to 834. While the availability of total beds excluding ICU beds stood at 50.5%, only 36 (12.5%) out of the 187 ICU beds and 3 (2%) out of the 151 ventilators were available across the 39 COVID hospitals (government and private).
The availability of non-ICU beds with oxygen supply, meanwhile, stood at 26% (475/1,824) of the total capacity. As many as 186 patients with severe symptoms and 57 patients with critical symptoms are currently under treatment in the district.
Health officials have attributed the high occupancy rate of ventilator and ICU beds to a sharp rise in extremely critical patients reaching hospitals during the peak and long recovery time in ICUs. “While the wave appears to be subsiding, the availability of critical health infrastructure is far from satisfactory. There are still patients who were admitted during the peak and the longer duration of their stay may have led to a clogging up of the system,” they said.
When contacted, District Medical Officer Jacob Varghese said the number of critical patients would soon witness a proportionate fall in the district. “The pandemic’s spread has been brought under control and this follows a subsequent rise in the availability of ICUs and ventilators. During the peak, we had a strategy in place to optimise the allocation of ICUs and ventilators among patients who need critical support,” he said.
In Pathanamathitta, meanwhile, the availability of ventilators and ICU beds across the 10 COVID-19 hospitals have improved markedly. As many as 75 out of 145 ventilators in the district are lying vacant currently while 23.2% (56/241) of the ICU beds are also available.
The number of patients having severe symptoms, meanwhile, stood at 575 while those with critical symptoms are 39.
“The number of patients requiring ICU care is coming down gradually with the fall in cases. But considering the rise in post-COVID thrombosis and pneumonia cases, the ventilators and ICU beds are likely to remain occupied a few more weeks,” said a senior official with the District health Department, Pathanamathitta.
