Private hospitals in GHMC area running out of COVID beds

The medical bulletin by the Telangana government on Tuesday showed that Apollo Hospital in Hyderguda and Global Gleneagles Hospital have zero beds available for the COVID-19 patients. All the beds in these hospitals, which are reserved for the COVID-19 patients have been filled. Similarly, Apollo Hospital in Secunderabad has only two beds available, Apollo Hospital at DRDO has seven beds available while Apollo at Jubilee Hills has only twelve beds available.

Most of the premium private hospital beds assigned for COVID-19 treatment in the GHMC area are being filled with COVID-19 patients. It is pertinent to note that on 1 March, the number of active cases in Telangana were only 1,907 of which 774 were in home isolation and the remaining 1,133 were in hospitals. But on 29 March, due to the second surge of COVID-19 cases, the state has 4,678 active cases currently in which 1,723 are under home isolation while around 2,955 are hospitalised. The number of people who are hospitalised now are approximately two-and-half times more than the numbers at the starting of the month.

However, the government has informed that around 5,709 beds in the state are vacant. The highest being at Gandhi Hospital where 1,773 beds are vacant, followed by 992 in TIMS.

The director of public health (DPH), Government of Telangana had shown his dissatisfaction over people asking for permission to celebrate Holi and Shab-e-Barat in the midst of the second wave of COVID-19, but later thanked the public for following the norms. "It's very heartening to note that people of the state, especially Hyderabadis took heed to the request of the government to make Holi and Shab-e-Barat celebrations a low-key affair in view of the prevailing second COVID-19 wave," said Dr G. Srinivasa Rao, DPH.

Meanwhile, Telangana reported 463 new COVID-19 cases on Monday taking the overall tally to 3,07,205 in the state. The state reported four new deaths on 29 March taking the total toll to 1,694. The fatality rate in the state is 0.55 percent which is less than the national average of 1.3 percent.

The GHMC area on Monday reported 145 new cases. The neighbouring Rangareddy district reported 28 new cases. Medchal-Malkajgiri district reported 46 and Sangareddy 9 new cases. Other districts of Telangana are also seeing a surge in cases. Nizamabad on Monday reported 23 new cases while Jagtiyal reported 20 new cases.

Around 364 citizens recovered from the infection on Monday taking the total recoveries to 3,00,833 in the state. The recovery rate, as per government records, stands at 97.92 percent, which is approximately three percent higher than the national average of 94.2 percent.