At 3, Chandigarh has highest Covid beds per 1,000

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 21

For every 1,000 people in the city, there is an availability of three Covid beds, which is the highest in the country and much above the national average of one Covid bed per 1,000 people.

Data on the availability of Covid beds across all states and union territories was tabled in the Rajya Sabha by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As on September 18, the city has 21 Covid facilities wherein there are 3,552 beds. Of these beds, the UT has 885 oxygen-supported beds and 113 ICU beds. The remaining are for asymptomatic Covid patients or for those with mild symptoms.

In April, the UT Administration had devised a contingency plan. Under the plan, it came up with a strategy to prepare logistics for 3,600 active infections at one point of time. Arun Gupta, Principal Secretary, Health, said: “We had done our homework and prepared a contingency plan in the beginning of April itself when Covid-19 had just started to spread. We got cooperation from all government and private institutions and NGOs in converting their premises into Covid care facilities.”

Gupta said: “We are operationalising three-level facilities in a staggered manner as per the actual requirement. We will try to increase the number of Covid beds.” The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been following a graded approach and is advising states for expanding Covid-dedicated hospital infrastructure. The states are advised to plan for the requisite number of isolations, oxygen supported and ICU beds, based on the prevalent and expected case growth rate.

Outstation patients continue to occupy UT beds

Patients from other states continue to occupy beds at government hospitals in the UT. Arun Gupta, Principal Secretary, Health, said: “Beds for critical patients will be a problem if these are occupied by patients from other states in a large number”.

Dr Jagat Ram, Director, PGI, said they had 192 Covid patients in Nehru Hospital Extension. Of them, 63 belong to Chandigarh, 61 to Punjab, 38 to Haryana and 18 to Himachal Pradesh. The PGI now has a total of 400 beds for the treatment of Covid patients.