BENGALURU: All eyes are on Bengaluru, not only for its growing Covid- 19 numbers, but also high mortality rate. The Critical Care Support Team, which keeps track of patients in ICU across the state, has expanded its services to Bengaluru too. “We started it three days ago for Bengaluru patients at Victoria Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and Bowring Hospitals. Across the state, 268 patients are in ICU and 39 are on ventilators. In Bengalulru, 178 patients are in ICU and 32 on ventilators,” said Dr K V Trilok Chandra, Special officer for high-risk COVID-19 cases.
“We guide doctors on treatment protocols, modification in approach, use of repurposed drugs and when to start them, changes in dosage, etc,” Dr Chandra said. The high-risk category being monitored includes patients aged above 50 years, below 10 years and those with comorbidities. The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) stands at 1.5% for the state, 2.6% for Bengaluru and 1.1% for districts excluding Bengaluru. As of Sunday, Bengaluru had recorded 88 deaths, followed by Bidar with 19 and Kalaburagi 18.
“There is a surveillance problem in Bidar and Kalaburagi with patients coming in late, or private medical establishments referring late. We had 3-4 cases where they were brought in dead,” Dr Chandra said. Doctors from Manipal and Columbia Asia hospitals are on the CCST team, while specialists from Narayana Health too joined recently, but only to monitor patients in Bengaluru.