Gone are those days when the hospitals were flooded with Covid-19 patients and people had to suffer due to a lack of beds. Witnessing a steep decline in Covid-19 cases, most of the Vizag hospitals have been denotified to carry on with their regular services. On Tuesday, Visakhapatnam reported 339 positive cases showing a healthy decline in comparison with the 502 cases reported a few days back.
Of the total 74 Covid-19 hospitals given permission for Covid-19 treatment, a total of 41 hospitals treating Covid-19 patients have been denotified, while 33 hospitals are continuing treating Covid-19 patients. According to the health officials, seeing a drop in cases, they have decided to let the private and government hospitals go for non-Covid treatment for now. Depending on the third wave affecting the patients, hospitals will be notified again for treatment. “The Vizag city has seen a good decline in Covid-19 cases and the recovery rate has been high. So we have denotified few hospitals to continue their regular medical duties,” said Principal of Andhra Medical College PV Sudhakar.
Due to the extension of lockdown, the number of positive Covid-19 cases has dropped from 1000 to below 500. Also, the current cases being reported are mostly mild and far from dangerous cases. Currently, there are only a few Covid-19 hospitals with more than 4-5 patients with mild symptoms. Post the decline in cases in Vizag, there are around 231 patients treated in ICU, 685 with Oxygen beds, 276 in ventilator beds, and not more than 100 in general beds at the district hospitals. While attempts to ramp up measures are taking place, Covid-19 patients in Vizag continue to receive the best treatment.
During the second wave of the pandemic in Vizag, there were about 104 tonnes of oxygen used at the hospitals. With the decline in cases for the past few days, the usage in Vizag hospitals has now come down to 55 tonnes of oxygen. The situation which seems to be getting better in the city has made the district officials work peacefully. It may also be recalled that there was a situation when some district officials, doctors, health team, and vaccination volunteers tested positive and a few lost their lives. The city had seen the worst phase many patients were losing their lives due to a lack of beds. Even a few Oxygen suppliers had shown their own way of business, demanding high charges from the patients.
While the city gets a break with the decline in Covid-19 cases, officials of Vizag are taking all precautionary measures to tackle the third wave. While the majority of the individuals above 45 years have been vaccinated, from June 21, individuals above 18 years are to get free vaccination from the Government. Meanwhile, there are many people who have got their first dose from private hospitals that charge money for vaccination. Also, individuals and students who have to move back to other countries are given first priority to get vaccinated. Many individuals think that the lockdown should continue for a few more weeks, giving an extension on relaxation timings. This is likely to stop the spread of Covid-19 cases in the next wave of the pandemic.
Following is the daily number of Covid-19 cases in Vizag that shows a decline since the past week:
June 10- 502
June 11- 500
June 12- 436
June 13- 290
June 14- 263
June 15- 339
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