BHUBANESWAR: The Covid-19 cases might have come down in some districts, but the severity of the disease has not.
Going by the daily statistics, the hospitalisation of cases has gone up by three times as a whopping 53 per cent (pc) Covid positive people have been admitted in Bhubaneswar and 37 pc in Cuttack. Earlier only about 15 pc people were being admitted and the rest stayed in home isolation.
Of the 1,494 active cases in Bhubaneswar, 800 patients are now admitted to 10 dedicated Covid hospitals (DCHs) in the city while 1,028 out of 2,767 active cases in Cuttack district have been hospitalised.
Three DCHs in Cuttack are fast running out of ventilators while there is no vacancy in ICUs in two hospitals.
Of the 853 ICU beds, 593 beds are occupied and there are 131 patients on ventilators in the available 169 sets.
Sources said the hospitals in Cuttack are running with over 60 pc occupancy in ICUs and almost 78 pc occupancy in ventilators for more than a fortnight.
In general beds, though, the occupancy is less than 50 pc. There are no vacancies in ICU in SCB Medical College and Hospital and Unique Hospital having 94 and 38 beds respectively.
Around 80 pc of 93 ICU beds in Ashwini Hospital are also occupied. Sadguru, Ashwini and OMM Suvam Hospitals are running out of ventilators.
As many as 617 patients were in the ICU and 131 on ventilators on July 5. While the number of ICU patients slightly came down to 593, the number of patients on ventilators continued to be the same on July 19. The patients in general beds have dropped to 224 from 304.
The situation is no better in Bhubaneswar either. There are 1554 general beds, 1,449 ICU beds and 371 ventilators in 10 DCHs, including a dedicated Covid health centre in the Capital City.
While 552 ICU beds and 99 ventilators are occupied, only 150 patients are admitted to the general beds. The ICU, ventilator and general bed occupancy on July 5 were 678, 168 and 270 respectively on July 5.
A health official said the occupancy of ICU and ventilators indicates the severity of the disease.
It is a fact that people are ignoring symptoms initially and coming to hospitals once they face severe respiratory distress. But the disease is causing severe damage to lungs if the viral load is more, which can only be prevented through proper Covid appropriate behaviour, he added.
Around 22 pc cases across the State are now under treatment as 4,479 patients of the total 20,387 active cases have been hospitalised.