Covid-19 crisis: Shortage of oxygen, hospital beds in Kerala

Health Minister K K Shailaja said steps are being taken to increase the number of ICU beds in the state

The ground situation in Kerala has turned grim. While hospitals are running out of oxygen, Covid-19 patients are struggling to get hospital beds. The vaccination drive is also progressing slowly, with just 18 per cent of the state’s total population getting inoculated so far.

Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja has, however, said the situation is not yet beyond control.

With experts projecting that the number of active cases in Kerala may touch the 6-lakh mark by next week from the present 4.2 lakh, the state is keeping fingers crossed. TPR in state is also remaining high at 27 percent.

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While health experts say that, at present, there seems to be nothing more the state could do, the government is being widely criticised for lowering its guard. Social distancing norms were constantly flouted by all political parties during the election campaigns.

Public health expert Dr V Ramankutty said political parties could not keep off from the responsibility of flouting Covid protocols during campaigning. He also said it was quite certain that Covid would last for quite some time and hence long-term strategies need to be chalked out.

While many states were witnessing an oxygen crisis, Kerala boasted of being an oxygen-surplus state. However, the reality is that oxygen demand in the state, at that point, was very low and the situation has now changed.

The total daily oxygen production of the state is 219 MT, along with a buffer stock of 1,000 MT. Now, he buffer stock is almost exhausted and the requirement is expected to reach 450 MT daily by next week. Hence, the state is desperately urging the Centre to send additional oxygen supply. Although the government maintains that there is no crisis, many major hospitals are making SOS calls for oxygen every day.

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Another major concern is scarcity of hospital beds. Even as the state government has ordered all private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent beds for Covid care and prescribed treatment rates, many patients are complaining of difficulties.

The health minister said steps are being taken to increase the number of ICU beds in the state. Additional oxygen allocation from the Centre and pooling of oxygen from steel plants could address the oxygen crisis to a large extent. Vaccination delay is caused by delay in supply from centre, she said.

The state revised the discharge policy by sending asymptomatic patients home. This is helping in freeing hospital beds. Although active cases in Kerala currently stands at 4.2 lakh, only 35,000 have been admitted to hospitals. The remaining are in home quarantine.

Dr S S Lal, a former technical officer at WHO and Congress candidate in this Assembly election, said strictly following Covid protocol was the only option now. Instead of a total lockdown that could lead to frustration, stringent enforcement of social distancing at public places could be a better option, he said.