BENGALURU: Since October 13, doctors working in designated Covid-19 hospitals in Bengaluru have been letting out a small sigh of relief every day, looking at the dip in the number of patients coming for admission.
Figures obtained by TNIE from some of these hospitals show a dip of almost 40 per cent in the inflow of Covid-19 patients.
“It is definitely a relief for us. We have been working day and night to manage the situation. While the case load had lessened of late, due to people with mild symptoms isolating themselves at home, now the dip in numbers has brought us more respite,” said a senior doctor from Victoria Hospital who is working with Covid-19 patients.
Confirming this, Dr Jayanti C R, Dean-cum-Director of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), which governs Victoria Hospital, one of the main designated institutions for Covid-19 treatment, said, “In the last one week alone, we have seen a dip of about 40 per cent in admissions. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope that the number doesn’t go up after the festival,” she said.
At Lady Curzon and Bowring Hospital and the newly inaugurated Charaka hospital too, the number of admissions has reduced by almost 50 per cent, according to Dean-cum-Director Dr Manoj Kumar.
“While most of the beds were full last Tuesday, we have a vacancy of about 30 beds at Bowring Hospital as of today, and about 35 beds at Charaka,” he pointed out.
Be cautious during festive season: Experts
However, ICUs in many of the hospitals are still full. Dr C Nagaraja, Director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD), said, “There has been a considerable dip in numbers across the state. The positivity rate has also come down. Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) are more in danger and also need oxygen. Hence, admissions here were really high in the last few months, but gladly we have noticed a considerable dip by almost 40 per cent in admissions at RGICD,” he explained.
The instances of people succumbing to SARI within two to three hours of being admitted has also come down, pointed out Dr Nagaraja.
“When SARI patients come to the ICU, almost 92 per cent of them test positive. Earlier, last-minute admissions, leading to deaths, were high. Now, that is not the case. We are having lesser people with such complications to be admitted in the ICU,” he said.
But medical experts warn that it is extremely important that people don’t let their guard down during the festive season.
“Presently, we have been seeing a dip from about 5,000 cases in the city drop to 3,800 daily. But this can go up drastically if people are not responsible,” cautioned Dr Manoj Kumar.