Hospitals in J&K run out of beds as COVID-19 cases surge

SRINAGAR — In a worrying development amid resurge in coronavirus cases, the bed occupancy of all hospitals dedicated for COVID-19 patients has increased many folds.

Quoting officials, GNS reported that there are more than 90 patients admitted in the CD hospital including 14 travelers and nine tourists. All the 17 ICU beds in the hospital, one among the exclusive facilities for the management of the COVID-19 patients, are already occupied.

Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar, as per officials has 104 COVID-19 dedicated beds while among the 87 total isolation beds, 54 are occupied by the patients, 48 of whom are on oxygen support.

When contacted HOD CD Hospital Dr Naveed Nazir Shah, he said that there has been a surge in the number of cases and admissions in the last few weeks.

Admissions have increased more than four to five times and hospital is almost running full to capacity. Even in the ICU all the beds are occupied, Dr Naveed said.

In JLNM Hospital Srinagar, among the exclusive facilities for COVID-19 management, 24 beds are occupied while at SKIMS Soura, the tertiary care hospital, 83 out of 253 COVID-19 dedicated beds are occupied while among 252 isolation beds, 81 are occupied with 70 patients on oxygen support.

Two days back DAK president Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said that “Kashmir is currently under the grip of a second wave and the cases are rising and hospitalizations too.”

“If countermeasures are not put in place, we could end up having a situation which could be worse than what we saw last year.”

“This is because vast majority of people in the valley are still susceptible to the virus and the virus will go where it is given room to run, and will find people who are vulnerable to infection,” Dr Nisar said.

Across Jammu and Kashmir, officials said there are 2739 ‘dedicated beds’ available and 387 are occupied hitherto.

Officials said that over 80 per cent of the total beds available are vacant across J&K, the cases are shooting up at a fast pace with 1647 cases registered in the two days alone with seven fatalities. The number of active cases stands at 5623 — 1688 in Jammu and 3935 in Kashmir. (GNS)