Spike in cases but no hike in beds

Coimbatore: In the last five days, Coimbatore recorded 740 cases, making the district with the highest number of Covid-19 active cases in the western region at 1,236.
While the district continues to add close to 150 new patients a day, besides also handling symptomatic Covid-19 patients from neighbouring districts, the state government seems to be dragging its feet on increasing the bed strength in the primary Covid-19 hospital for the zone.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the district nearly doubled from 538 cases on June 30 to 1,071 on July 1 and has increased by 1,300 patients over the next 20 days hitting 2,359 cases. While Coimbatore may have only 1,359 patients, it handles most of the active cases from Tirupur which stands at 270 and Nilgiris which stands at 237. Besides these two districts, Coimbatore continues receiving symptomatic patients from districts in the western and central regions including Karur, Namakkal, Salem, Dindigul, Dharmapuri, among others.
With ESI Hospital having one of the most successful track records in treating Covid-19 patients, it is the most preferred destination for treatment among those who want in a government set up, especially for people who can’t afford treatment in the private sector. Though cases are galloping ahead in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Nilgiris, the state government seems to be showing no urgency in increasing bed strength. Health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar announced that they would increase the hospital’s bed strength from 400 to 900 as early last month, and as recently as Tuesday. “Work is already underway to add the 500 beds,” he said.
ESI Hospital with 327 Covid-19 patients, has 73 beds left, which even if accommodating only 15 new symptomatic patients a day, from the three districts, may get full in the next five days. “For every 30 new patients we get daily, we are also discharging close to 40 to 60 patients a day and have been maintaining at 320-odd patients a day for the last fortnight,” a hospital official, while refusing to comment on the project to add 500 beds, said.
District administration officials say the reason behind the delay in adding 500 beds is because their focus is now on adding beds to Covid care centres as 80% of the patients continue to be asymptomatic. “We are also mulling if patients can be sent to CMCH and Pollachi government headquarters hospital after ESI’s 400 beds get full, before increasing their strength to 900, so the patient load gets more evenly distributed,” said an official.