Hospitals in Kolkata see rise in Covid cases, labs report higher positivity rate – Times of India

KOLKATA: Hospitals are registering a steady rise in patients arriving for Covid-19 treatment while some laboratories are also reporting higher positivity rate. Though numbers aren’t alarming yet, doctors said the signs warrant caution and urged people to behave responsibly, wear masks and avoid crowding.
At the state-run Infectious Diseases and Beliaghata General (IDBG) Hospital, where the number of Covid-19 patients had gone down to 10 about a month ago, the patient count has nearly doubled to 19.

“The Covid graph is on the rise again at least as far as number of patients in our hospital is concerned. The most worrying factor is the high number of severe cases which is between 90% and 95%,” said a doctor at IDBG Hospital.
At Peerless Hospital, the number of patient count started climbing around two weeks ago. In a week, the number of indoor patients has gone up from 20 to 25. “Previously, the RT-PCR positivity which had not gone up above 5% is now around 10%,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
Sources at NICED said the test positivity in its lab is now touching around 7% on certain days.
“Though it is not a sharp spike, we currently have 14 Covid patients admitted against patients in single digit around a week ago. Currently, we have 24 Covid beds. If the need arises, we can always scale up,” said CK Birla Hopsitals CMRI chief operating officer Simmardeep Gill.
Belle Vue Clinic CEO Pradip Tondon, however, said the graph of Covid positive patients admitted in the hospital had been fluctuating for the past few weeks. “The positivity in our lab had gone down as low as 2 to 3% around three weeks ago. Now it is fluctuating between 5% and 10%, refusing to come down below 5%. The number of samples coming in for test has also gone up,” said Peerless microbiologist Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhuri.
“People everywhere seem to have thrown all Covid appropriate behaviour to the wind as if the virus has disappeared. We must follow all preventive measures like masking, distancing, along with taking the Covid vaccine,” said IDBG Hospital medical superintendent and vice principal Asis Manna.
On Tuesday, the state reported only 546 fresh cases. But the number of test conducted in the past 24 hours was only about 33,000.
“Also the number of rapid antigen test currently at government facilities is much higher than RT-PCR which is not the right kind of testing strategy,” said a state government virologist.