109 patients in Srinagar hospitals, 40 in 9 other districts

Anantnag: Only 4.4 percent of the beds designated for Covid treatment in Kashmir valley are occupied as of Wednesday evening, with only 149 people undergoing hospital treatment for the infection.
Kashmir, as of now, has 3,353 Covid designated beds in 25 hospitals located in the ten districts of the division. Among these beds, only 149 are currently occupied by Covid patients.
This is a huge improvement from the situation less than a month ago, June 21 to be precise, when the overall hospital bed occupancy in Kashmir valley was around 15%, with 530 patients undergoing treatment in hospitals.
Since then, there has been a drastic decrease in the number of daily cases reported as well as the total number of active cases in Kashmir division. At present, there are 1,300 odd active cases of the virus across the ten districts.
An official in the administration acknowledged the improved situation while talking to Kashmir Reader. “There has been a huge decrease in the number of new cases. The hospital bed occupancy has also fallen substantially,” the official said.
The official informed that the number of people on ventilation has also gone down and only 15 people needed ventilation as of Wednesday evening. “Only 5 of them are on invasive ventilation, four of them in SMHS hospital and one in SKIMS,” the official said, adding that the ten people on non-invasive ventilation are admitted to these two hospitals in equal numbers.
Also, if we take a closer look at the data, it is Srinagar district that is shouldering most of the burden when it comes to the number of patients undergoing treatment.
“Out of the 149 people undergoing treatment, 109 are admitted in Srinagar hospitals, and the rest in other hospitals across Kashmir valley,” the official said. “The hospital bed occupancy in Srinagar district of 6.4 percent is two notches more than the average.”
However, the fact is that more than half the Covid designated beds across Kashmir valley are in Srinagar. The seven main hospitals in Srinagar have a total of 1,681 Covid designated beds, while the rest 1,672 are distributed in other 9 districts of the valley.
The numbers show that the hospital bed occupancy in the other nine districts is only 2.3 percent. “Which is good in a way because these hospitals are understaffed and low on infrastructure. Srinagar hospitals have a better coping mechanism in place,” the official said.
He, however, added that the administration was vigilant as the threat of a third wave looms large. The official said that the people should also observe utmost care and precautions and not take the pandemic for granted.

Suhail A Shah