India ready with 4 lakh beds in 400 districts to tackle Covid-19

The central and state governments have joined hands with private health players at the micro level to handle community spread of the deadly coronavirus. As part of the process, hospitals, guesthouses, and hostels have been converted to dedicated three-layer Covid-19 health centres in more than 400 districts in India.

Nearly four lakh isolated beds have been added to these health centers. One-third of these beds are in the worst-affected states of Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu (8 percent), Madhya Pradesh (8 percent), and Rajasthan (7 percent).

As of April 22 morning, India reported nearly 20,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and almost 650 deaths. Maharashtra alone accounted for roughly one-fourth of the total cases and one-third of the deaths.

India Today Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) has found that one in 10 isolated beds or nearly 40,000 beds in these specialized hospitals are in intensive care units to handle severed Covid-19 patients. Tamil Nadu has 17 per cent of these ICU beds, followed by Maharashtra (11 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (10 per cent), Rajasthan (8 per cent) and Telangana (7 per cent). According to experts, nearly 5-10% of the patients will need urgent ventilator support. But only about 19,000 ventilators are available in these dedicated Covid-19 centres, which means that less than half the ICU beds have ventilators. Any sudden major outbreak of coronavirus infections may create massive pressure on this health infrastructure.

“In a worst-case scenario, according to one estimate at least, we may end up with 2.2 million cases in India by May 15, which implies that we will need 110,000 to 220,000 ventilators,” the Brookings Institution said in its recent report on India’s health infrastructure. These dedicated Covid-19 health facilities are an outcome of a meeting between cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and state officials on March 22. In this meeting, Gauba suggested earmarking some hospitals in the states for coronavirus patients.