In Covid-19 Second Wave, Odisha Witnesses A Rise In Critical Patients!

Bhubaneswar: Here is an emergency pandemic alert for the State Health Department. During the week of April 20-27, severe cases requiring critical care treatment in the State have posted a sharp rise.

The occupancy in ICU/HDU during the week is up by a massive 121 per cent. Moreover, the number of critical Covid-19 cases in the State has grown by over 3-times.This eye-popping rise points to the challenging days ahead for the State in May when the second Covid-19 wave will reach its peak, which health experts fear that may unravel dangerously on the critical care treatment sector.

The significant observation here is the new confirmed cases in the mentioned week have posted only a rise of 36 per cent as against 155 per cent rise in the previous week ending on April 19.

THE ‘CRITICAL’ STATE

As per data available with Odisha Health Department, the occupancy in ICU/HDUs for the week ending on April 27 stood at 1,085, up from 489 in the week ended on April 19. The occupancy in the critical care department has, therefore, risen to over 53 per cent from mere 20 per cent in the week ended on April 19.

The analysis of State Health Department reveals that while during the week ended on April 19 and April 27, the occupancy of general beds has been up by a mere 37 per cent, which has been almost in proportion to the rise in new cases by around 36 per cent during the weeks compared.

However, a proportionate demand has not been witnessed in the critical care treatment of Covid-19 positives that shows a rise in severity of Covid-19 cases in the State during the last week.

“This disproportionate rise doesn’t augur well for the State, especially when the second wave in the State is heading towards peak. Given that the proportion of new ICU patients is higher than newly hospitalised patients, which hints at both migration of patients from general to ICU and new admissions. As the average duration of stay in ICUs in Odisha has been between 8-10 days, the sharp rise in occupancy has been reflected there in the week mentioned,” explained a senior health official in State Health Department and he further observed that in order to tide over the looming ICU crisis early detection and treatment should be the key.

RISING SEVERITY?   

The high rise in ventilator demand nails the fact that unlike first wave, the severity in the second wave looks apparently graver. Between the week ending on Apr 19 and 27, the patient count requiring ventilator support has grown by 156 per cent to touch 233 from mere 91.

In a span of 7-days, the occupancy rate of ventilator beds has grown by nearly 3-times to over 33 per cent from around 12 per cent a week ago.

“Since the 233 patients are on ventilator, means on a life support system that mechanically makes the lungs to breathe oxygen, they can be termed as critical cases,” explained the senior official in State Health Directorate.