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Tag: COVID-19 cases in Punjab

  • Six die of oxygen scarcity at Amritsar hospital, district administration blamed; probe on

    Six sufferers, 4 of whom had been Covid-positive, died attributable to scarcity of oxygen at a personal hospital in Amritsar on Saturday.
    Ram Piyari (80), Didar Singh (86) and Kulwant Singh from Amritsar, Kawaljit Kaur and Gurpreet Singh from Gurdaspur, and Sukhdev Singh from Tarn Taran died gasping for oxygen at Neelkanth Hospital on the intervening night time of April 23 and 24.
    Hospital authorities blamed the district administration for the deaths, claiming that their pleas for oxygen fell on deaf ears.
    Following the tragedy, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ordered a probe into the circumstances resulting in the deaths on the hospital, which prima facie appeared to have flouted orders given to all personal hospitals with oxygen scarcity to shift their sufferers to the Government Medical College.
    The CM additionally ordered shutdown of the state’s iron and metal industries to divert oxygen for medical use, in addition to calling for establishing oxygen management rooms on the state and district ranges.
    Following the CM’s orders, the Amritsar DC has arrange a 2-member committee, comprising a PCS officer, Dr Rajat Oberoi (Deputy Director Local Bodies), who can be incharge of the dying evaluation committee, and Civil Surgeon, Amritsar, to probe the matter.
    The hospital administration has alleged that district administration acquired all oxygen crops in Amritsar to provide oxygen to the Government Medical College.
    Civil Surgeon Charanjit Singh, when contacted, mentioned, “We are checking the hospital’s records. They told us that four patients were Covid positive, while two were on oxygen support for other ailments.”
    On the hospital’s allegations, he mentioned, “We are receiving demand for oxygen from private hospitals every day, and it is forwarded to the state. The oxygen shortage started from last two to three days. But we are managing it”
    But hospital officers claimed that the district administration failed to reply to their determined requires oxygen cylinders for 48 hours.
    Relatives of the deceased sufferers alleged that they had been informed to signal papers absolving the hospital of accountability if their affected person died attributable to scarcity of oxygen. Narinder Kumar, a relative of Ram Piyari, mentioned, “We were informed about the death of our patient around 1am. Earlier, they had told us that she was recovering. They had claimed to have sufficient oxygen at the time of admission. Many hospitals turned us away as they said they didn’t have oxygen. But here we were told that there was no shortage of oxygen.”
    Amritpal Singh Bajwa, Congress sarpanch of Nangal village in Gurdaspur, who misplaced his cousin, mentioned, “Patients were folding their hands before doctors and nurses to save them. We paid Rs 45,000 per day for treatment. Instead of giving us the dead body, they were asking us to clear the dues.”
    Neelkanth Hospital MD Sunil Devgan mentioned: “Our minimum requirement was of 50 cylinders, but we couldn’t arrange it. We told the attendants of patients to take them to other hospitals as we were facing difficulty in getting oxygen.”
    Devgan claimed, “The crisis built up during the last 48 hours. I approached every possible source in government and private sector. I didn’t sleep during the last two days, but couldn’t manage oxygen. Police has been deployed outside oxygen vendors and no private hospital is allowed to lift any cylinders. I had also sent men to Jammu for cylinders but to no avail.”

    Two days earlier than this tragedy, Medical Education Minister and Amritsar Central MLA OP Soni, had claimed that there was no scarcity of oxygen within the district. But after these six deaths, Soni mentioned, “Oxygen supply situation is like next to death in Amritsar.”
    Soni, nevertheless, squarely blamed the personal hospital for the six deaths. “This has happened due to negligence of hospital administration… We have set up an inquiry committee to probe the issue.”

    However, in the course of the press convention on Saturday, Soni admitted that he additionally obtained determined name for oxygen from one other personal hospital, Medicity.
    “They (Medicity) told me they had just one hour if oxygen left with 19 patients admitted. They were immediately provided 20 oxygen cylinders… There is no discrimination with private hospitals. It is our responsibility to arrange oxygen,” mentioned Soni.

  • Centre flags ‘need for more contact tracing, lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour’

    The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has raised some main considerations concerning the fast upsurge of Covid-19 instances in Punjab. On the idea of inputs being acquired by the Centre from 9 groups presently visiting 9 districts of Punjab to evaluate the scenario, their main considerations are — contract tracing, scarcity of manpower, lack of Covid care centres, devoted hospitals in some districts, sluggish tempo of vaccination amongst individuals aged above 45 years (with co-morbidities) and people above 60 years and lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour.In a letter dated April 10 to Punjab Health Secretary Hussan Lal, secretary of the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Rajesh Bhushan has talked about that the groups have been offering suggestions every day to the state as properly central authorities.
    Shortage of manpower
    “I would like to highlight the following areas of concern as noted by the central team that there is a need to enhance focus on contact tracing in Patiala and Ludhiana. Contact tracing and surveillance efforts in SAS Nagar (Mohali) are being hampered due to shortage of manpower. Additional manpower must be deployed for contact tracing on a priority basis,” Bhushan said, including that low charges of testing have been reported from Patiala and as reported by the staff, there is no such thing as a RT-PCR testing laboratory in Rupnagar.
    The letter additional says that there is no such thing as a devoted Covid Hospital in SAS Nagar and Rupnagar districts, and sufferers are being referred to neighboring districts or Chandigarh. Similarly, the staff has reported lack of any Covid care centre/devoted Covid hospital in Rupnagar district. Hospital mattress occupancy charges in SAS Nagar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana are on the upper facet and appropriate preparations for a similar should be undertaken by the district well being authorities with enough lead time to organize for any surge in instances, it mentioned.
    Procurement of ventilators
    Teams have additionally reported points with procurement of ventilators for correct case administration in SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr). ln Rupnagar, though ventilators can be found, these usually are not being optimally utilised resulting from scarcity of healthcare workforce, significantly docs and nurses. Contractual hiring of healthcare staff would go a great distance in addressing this.
    Shortage of healthcare workforce has been reported from Patiala, SAS Nagar and Rupnagar additionally. The groups that visited Patiala and Ludhiana have reported a sluggish tempo of vaccination amongst individuals 45 years (with co-morbidities) and people above 60 years. This additionally must be addressed on precedence, the ministry has mentioned.
    Covid-appropriate behaviour
    Teams have additionally reported lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour by the group and have urged stricter floor stage enforcement for a similar by district authorities.
    The ministry had lately deployed central groups to essentially the most affected districts. These groups have been actively participating with state governments in coordinating and collaborating efforts in the direction of preparedness and response to the pandemic, actively working along with district administrations to grasp the unfold of Covid-19, present help and supervision and advocate workable options to curb the unfold. These groups have been tasked to work alongwith district well being authorities on Covid-19 preparedness and response with deal with testing, contact tracing and containment operations, Covid-appropriate behaviour and its enforcement, hospital infrastructure and availability of logistic and vaccination progress and many others.
    The letter additional mentioned that it’s requested that these options may be examined and additional verified…and appropriate corrective actions as warranted could also be taken by the state/district administration. Union authorities has additionally taken observe of points associated to vaccine availability and required motion to enhance the provides based mostly on accessible inventory, reads the letter.
    In a quick abstract of key efficiency indicators, Mohali and Jalandhar districts are on the high with ventilators occupancy of 30 and 27.45 per cent, respectively. Jalandhar additionally tops with oxygen help beds with 1,420 beds adopted by Ludhiana with 874 beds. Jalandhar additionally owns the very best variety of devoted ambulances, 139, for Covid administration. Meanwhile, share of lively instances beneath house isolation within the district included 82.3 per cent in Jalandhar, 88.55 per cent in Nawanshahr and 77.82 per cent in Hoshiarpur.
    Almost all districts reported affirmation percentages above 5 per cent.