Hospital bed occupancy up in TS; 89 more beds occupied in one week

Hyderabad: The number of beds occupied in hospitals in Telangana has increased, according to the latest data. Eighty-nine more hospital beds were occupied in the state on 6 January as compared to 31 December. On 31 December, out of the total 55,810 available beds, 1,229 were occupied whereas on 6 January, out of the 56,012 available beds, 1,318 were reported to be occupied.

Compared to the two weeks from 16 to 30 December where additionally 13 beds were occupied, this weekly surge of 89 beds is pretty high.

However, on 6 January, a total of 202 additional beds were made available.

Telangana director of public health (DPG) Dr. G. Srinivas Rao on Thursday said that only 2.3% of the total beds available in 1,327 hospitals in Telangana are occupied.

The bed occupancy rate remained more or less unchanged in the last one week. As of 6 January, 2.3% of the total beds available in both government and private hospitals in Telangana were found to be occupied. A week ago, 2.2% of beds were occupied.

There are three types of bed facilities available in hospitals – regular beds, oxygen beds, and ICU beds.

Regular beds

As of 6 January, out of 22,168 regular beds available in the state, 372 were occupied (1.6%). The occupancy rate of regular beds showed a minimal increase from 1.4% on 31 December to 1.6% on 6 January. Also, 130 additional regular beds were provided on 6 January.

Oxygen beds

Oxygen beds are beds equipped with oxygen cylinders to avoid problems due to the lack of available ventilators. On 6 January, 2.4% (528 oxygen beds) of the total available 21,950 oxygen beds were occupied. The occupancy rate of oxygen beds in the state went up by 0.2% in the last one week from 2.2% to 2.4%. Sixty-five additional oxygen beds were made available in the last one week.

ICU beds

ICU beds recorded the highest occupancy rate among the three kinds of beds available in hospitals in Telangana. On 6 January, out of the total 11,894 ICU beds in the state, 418 were occupied (3.5%). On 31 December, 3.4% of ICU beds available were occupied.

On 6 January, seven additional ICU beds were arranged in the hospitals.

The DPH on Thursday also said that approximately 10,000 beds are exclusively arranged for children.

Though the bed occupancy rates in the state remain low, with the number of COVID-19 cases showing a sharp spike, all eyes are on severity, hospitalization, and bed occupancy in the coming weeks in January.

Telangana, like other states, has been witnessing a surge in cases. On 6 January, the state reported 1,913 new cases. From 428 cases on 3 January, the cases rose drastically to 1,020 on 4 January and steadily increased to 1,520 on 5 January.

A week ago, on 31 December, the state had recorded 311 COVID-19 cases. In a single week, the test positivity rate (TPR) also increased from 0.85% on 31 December to 3.5 % on 6 January.

On Thursday, the GHMC area recorded more that 60% of the total COVID-19 cases in the state (1,214 cases).

Meanwhile, from Thursday, the state health department has announced that no Omicron data will be provided to the public as 70% of the current cases in the state are Omicron variant.