Second Coronavirus Wave Hits India Harder, Share of Seriously Ill Patients in Hosps 'Significantly Higher'

With the country under huge Covid surge exceeding the previous peak, the share of serious cases under hospitalization has also increased significantly as compared to the situation earlier in mig-August last year when the cases were rising rapidly.

Around 4.5 percent of active cases this year are currently on oxygen support, while 2.3 percent of the cases are in ICU and 0.4 percent are on ventilator, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said during a group of Ministers’ Meeting on Friday, Times of India reported.

Last year in August, when the cases were surging, 2.4 percent of the active cases were on Oxygen support whereas only 1.8 percent were in the ICU and 0.2 percent were on ventilator.

Reports earlier indicated that amid surge in Maharashtra, all private hospitals in Nagpur were left without a ventilator bed and just 27 ICU beds as critical patients rise in the city on Wednesday morning.

In the evening too there were just three ventilator beds available at (Government Medical College and Hospital) GMCH. The three ventilator beds available at GMCH were taken in a couple of hours. Doctors said that five to ten Covid patients in every ward are now on non-invasive ventilators but they are helpless due to paucity of ICU and ventilator beds.

Registering a steady increase for the 30th day in a row, the number of active COVID-19 cases increased to 9,79,608, which is 7.5 percent of the total infections, according to the data on Friday.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 9.78 crore, the Union health ministry said on Friday.

“Total 32,16,949 vaccine doses were given till 8 pm on Friday, the 84th day of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination,” the ministry said. According to the provisional report, 28,24,066 beneficiaries were administered the first dose and 3,92,883 received the second dose, the ministry said, adding that final reports for the day would be completed by Friday night.

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