GB Nagar: 25% of COVID ICU beds occupied by outsiders

As Covid-19 infections increase in Gautam Budh Nagar, 303 out of the 528 intensive care unit beds in the city are occupied. A quarter of the occupation is by people from outside the district, according to official records.

The district has capacity to provide beds to over 2,450 patients in the district.

GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY, said that private Covid-dedicated facilities had been asked to reserve at least 50% of their beds for the residents of the district. According to him, a hospital can turn away a patient from outside the district in case they have filled their quota.

The DM also said that considering the need of isolation and ICU beds, the district health department had put the cap on the rates for the private hospitals. “The private hospitals have been divided into two different categories — National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers -accredited and non-NABH accredited. Even the patients have been categorised in three groups – moderate, severe and very severe. The rates for NABH-accredited hospitals vary from ₹10,000 to ₹18,000 per day, including the cost of PPE kits. For the non-NABH category, the rates vary from ₹8,000 to ₹15,000 per day, including the cost of PPE kits,” he said.

Suhas said 426 asymptomatic patients were in home isolation. “Our home isolation cell in the integrated command call centre is keeping a close tab on the health conditions of these patients. So far, we have taken eight of them to the covid-dedicated facilities. Four of the home isolated persons are not the residents of GB Nagar,” he said.

Chief medical officer , Dr Deepak Ohri said that on the basis of the data given by the home isolation cell about the overseas travellers, our surveillance team is doing the contact tracing of all of them. “We are keeping a close tab on the persons, who have recently travelled to foreign countries in the recent past. As per the cell’s records, there are altogether 225 international travellers in the district, including 198 from United Kingdom, 17 from South Africa, eight from Brazil and two from USA,” he said.

Additional chief medical officer , Dr Neeraj Tyagi, who is the in-charge of vaccination in the district said that on the third day of four-day special vaccination drive , as many as 7,730 persons took their jabs on Tuesday. “As many 2,195 senior citizens took their jabs, out of which 555 were the second dose recipients. Besides, 5,277 people aged between 45 and 59 years were vaccinated. The number of left out HCWs and FLWs, who got their shots today, was 258,” he said. Hindustan Times