As cases double in 10 days, Rajkot Covid hospital almost full

City and rural areas cumulatively have been reporting 20 more cases consistently for more than a week now. The surge meant that 216 of the 250 beds in the designated Covid-19 hospital on the campus of PDU Hospital were occupied on Wednesday, prompting health officers to shift some of the patients to newly-set up CCCs.

“As the cases have risen in the past week, we have set up CCC in BG Garaiya College with a capacity of 200 beds while Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has converted its Renbashera (nighshelter) in Mochi Bazaar in the city into a CCC. That facility has 100 beds. With a view to decrease the load on the Covid-19 hospital in the civil hospital and ensure that vulnerable and serious patients receive proper treatment, we started shifting those patients who are young and have no co-mobrid conditions to these CCC three days ago. Till Thursday, 68 such patients have been shifted to the BG Garaiya College CCC and 28 others to the Rainbashera CCC,” Mitehs Bhanderi, Chief District Health Officer (CDHO) of Rajkot told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The government has converted the newly-constructed super specialty block in PDU Hospital into a designated Covid-19 hospital. This designated hospital has 250 beds and 42 ventilators. This hospital is the nodal facility for districts of Rajkot, Morbi and Surendranagar. But being the second largest civil hospital in Saurashtra, patients from other districts from the regions are also coming here. The hospital has 1088 beds in all.

The CDHO said process is on to convert Samras Girls Hostel, which has capacity of 500 beds, into a CCC. The government has also designated Star Synergy Hospital (45 beds), Param Hospital (35 beds) and Christ Hospital (35 beds) as private hospitals where Covid-19 patients can get treatment at their own cost.

Bhanderi said that the health department expects the curve of infections is likely to continue to rise in coming few days and that preparations are being made accordingly.