Nagpur: Only 10% Covid patients in hospital; CCCs taking bulk of load in district

NAGPUR: Though the Nagpur district and city are witnessing huge surge in new cases and fatalities since one week, the admissions of moderate to critically ill Covid patients in IGGMCH, GMCH and AIIMS is just 7.5% of the 8,406 cases recorded by the district civil surgeon.
Against a total bed capacity of 1,260 in Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCHs) at these three facilities, 633 are currently occupied.Another 191 patients, requiring specialized medical care, are admitted to five private DCHs in the city. This takes total admissions ratio to 9.8% against positive cases.
The admissions in government and private (824) is almost equal to highest single day surge of over 800 cases recorded on Saturday.
The analysis refers to only the data provided by the civil surgeon (CS), who is district nodal officer for Covid, as on August 8, 2020. The actual number of cases, discharge and active cases may vary due to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and the CS following different cut offs for daily reporting.
According to the CS press note, Nagpur district has 8,406 cases with 4,556 discharged as of Saturday. This indicates 3,860 are currently active. Excluding the total hospitalizations 824, the remaining 3,036 active cases or 36% are either in Covid Care Centres (CCCs) for initial screening or have proceeded for home isolation. The hospitalizations account for 21% of active cases.
As of Saturday, the 18 CCCs in city and different tehsils had 1,477 admissions which is 17.5% of total cases. Another 2,091 are in process of admissions which means 54% of newly-found cases are yet to be shifted to any facility. This is mainly because of the district administration and civic body revising their policy for hospitalizations on July 27. Only those complaining of breathlessness, co-morbities and critically ill are getting preference in both government and private hospitals.
As a precautionary measure, the administration started basic screening facility at MLA Hostel CCC where ECG, oxygen saturation level and blood tests are being done to clinically ascertain if a patient requires DCH admission.
So far, 2,098 patients have been discharged from the three government hospitals and 220 from private hospitals. A whopping 2,228 were discharged from the CCCs, which is 57% of the active cases. This has given a huge relief to the stressed DCHs staff as earlier all types of patients were admitted there.
The CCCs in city and district are now hosting major caseload. The district though having sufficient equipment and ICU beds in government DCHs, is yet to substantially use them mainly because of lack of manpower.