20 patients in hospitals, Covid bed occupancy now 3% in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 6

Only 20 Covid beds are occupied in the city hospitals. Seven patients are on ventilator beds and 13 on oxygen support. The occupancy is barely 3 per cent of the total beds (533 beds).

The UT has 101 ventilator beds and 452 oxygen beds reserved for Covid patients. All 20 patients are being treated at the PGI.

One case in UT

Chandigarh: The city on Saturday reported one case of Covid-19 and no death due to the virus. Five more patients have been cured of the disease. TNS

According to experts, the severity of the disease has decreased due to immunisation. Even if the third wave came, the hospitalisation rate would not be huge enough to cause shortage of beds, they added. In Chandigarh, only 29 patients are currently infected with the virus.

Dr Suman Singh, Director, Health Services (DHS), UT, said, “The rate of infection is low at the moment. This has happened because of vaccination coverage and herd immunity. The severity of the disease is dependent on the immunity and comorbidity of the patient. As the virus has a mutant nature, we have to be very careful. We should follow the Covid protocol and get fully vaccinated. Every pandemic has its own course and takes at least two years to ebb. We hope in the near future the virus loses severity and life returns to normal.”

Dr Jasbinder Kaur, Director, GMCH-32, said, “It is difficult to say that the pandemic is over, but the number of new cases are less and positivity rate is less too. As other countries have shown an upward trend in the daily cases, we have to keep our fingers crossed and continue taking precautions.”

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, a scientific adviser, said, “The pandemic comes in waves and there will be high tide and low tide. At this moment, it is low tide in several parts of India, which means the total number of cases and severity are low. After sometime, more people will be infected and tide will change in natural upswing of pandemic.”