Uttar Pradesh: More than 50 sufferers in queue for a mattress

Outside the trauma centre of King George’s Medical University in Lucknow is a triage space of types with round 20 beds and a few primary medical tools. This is the place each Covid protocol within the guide vanishes the minute a affected person is wheeled in — there is no such thing as a restriction on motion, nobody is questioned or scanned for temperature, and social distancing is rendered meaningless.
With 1,50,676 energetic circumstances, the second highest within the nation, behind solely Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh’s already frail well being infrastructure is stretched additional. Most hospitals in Lucknow are reporting acute scarcity of ICU and ventilator beds.
Sitting on one of many beds on the triage is Lucknow resident Vikas Verma, 38. Having examined constructive for the coronavirus, Verma says he has been ready for 2 days for a mattress within the hospital’s Covid ward that has round 520 beds — 427 ICU and 133 with ventilators.

“After I developed breathing problems, I came here. Since then, I have only got an oxygen mask. The hospital authorities say they will shift me when a bed is available,” he says.
On the mattress subsequent to him is Sarla Awasthi, 70, who has examined constructive. Her son Vaibhav Awasthi, a farmer from Lucknow’s Mohalalganj, says, “After my mother started developing breathing problems, I took her to five different private hospitals but they all said that they had no ventilators to spare. I finally brought her here, but now her oxygen level is dropping and she desperately needs an ICU bed. I don’t know what to do. Just an hour ago, this room was filled with people sobbing and crying. This makes my heart sink.”
A KGMU official on the registration counter confirmed that within the absence of extra beds, they’ve clear directions to suggest house isolation to those that check constructive, or to refer them to different medical services.
“We do not have any more beds. If we have oxygen available, and the patient needs it, we try to provide that,” he mentioned, confirming that for the final couple of days, there have been greater than 50 sufferers queuing up for a mattress.
While Lucknow had 3,138 energetic circumstances on the finish of March this 12 months, by Friday, April 16, that quantity had shot as much as 40,753, which is greater than 27 per cent of the state’s caseload. Moreover, out of the 1.33 lakh individuals who examined constructive within the district for the reason that begin of the pandemic, 48,014 examined constructive within the first 16 days of the current month.
When requested concerning the surge in numbers in Lucknow, a authorities official mentioned the excessive testing charge was one of many causes, together with the truth that a number of Covid constructive sufferers come right here from different elements of the state.
On Thursday, CM Adityanath directed authorities to extend the variety of devoted Covid hospitals in Lucknow, and declare KGMU and Balrampur hospital as Covid-only set-ups. With that, Lucknow will now have greater than 10 devoted Covid hospitals. The CM additionally introduced the organising of a brand new 1,000-bed Covid hospital in Lucknow.
KGMU spokesperson Sudhir Singh confirmed that the variety of Covid beds is predicted to go up from 520 to three,000 beds by Monday.

The CM has additionally ordered {that a} case below the Pandemic Act be registered towards these turning away sufferers despatched on the suggestions of district magistrates and chief medical officers.
However, with Lucknow reporting greater than 5,000 day by day circumstances on a median, round half of them symptomatic, and sufferers coming from a number of neighbouring districts, the state of affairs is unlikely to get higher any time quickly.