Vijayapura: With Covid cases increasing significantly in the district, the District Administration is taking all steps to meet the challenges by augmenting health facilities. The District Administration has not only taken steps to install adequate oxygen plants to supply during emergencies but also has increased the beds for possible Covid patients by 80 per cent.
According to officials from the District Department of Health and Family Welfare (DHFW), Vijayapura had a weak infrastructure with regard to oxygen storage and supply. During the second wave, the daily oxygen requirement was about 19 Metric Tonnes (MT) and the district did not have sufficient oxygen plants. It was dependent either on the private supplier or neighbouring districts for its oxygen needs. Now, the situation has improved as there is an oxygen plant in every Taluk hospital.
Meanwhile, the District Administration has doubled the Covid bed capacity compared to the bed availability in the second wave. In the second wave, there were a maximum of 1,858 beds including 1,368 oxygen and 387 ICU beds. At present, the total Covid – 19 beds capacity has increased to 3,508 beds, which includes 342 beds from the 14 different government hospitals in the district. Of the total beds, 2,025 are oxygen and 986 ICU beds. A total of 162 private hospitals have been announced as Covid – 19 hospitals in the region.
Deputy Commissioner P. Sunil Kumar said that to ensure the supply of life-saving gas in the district, oxygen plants of a minimum of 250 litres per minute capacity have been installed in each Taluk hospital. “We have also made an agreement with the oxygen suppliers for the sufficient supply of life-saving oxygen during the peak. A couple of foundations including Azim Premji Foundation have helped in setting up oxygen plants across the district,” he said.
When asked whether they have sufficient technical staff as in the second wave the district civil hospital was forced to send ventilators to the private hospital because of lack of technical staff, Sunil Kumar pointed out that they had invited applications for the job and received good response as we recruited few technicians.
“I cannot ensure that we have sufficient staff but we have increased the manpower in all the civil hospitals. We may not face a shortage of manpower in any of the hospitals in this wave. We are well prepared to deal with rising Covid – 19 cases and there is enough capacity of oxygen and beds in the district,” said DC.
