West Bengal: Experts draw comfort from Covid stats – Times of India

KOLKATA: Despite the fear of a sharp spike in Covid numbers during the fortnight after the Puja, hospitals across the state have seen either a slight drop in Covid bed occupancy over the past few days or the number of admissions has remained more or less unchanged. Health experts said while such a trend is a positive sign, we need to observe it for a longer period and without dropping the guard during Diwali.
After the massive second wave surge that led to a major hospital bed crisis, the number of Covid patients started declining after the state imposed strict curbs. The number in most Kolkata hospitals had come down to less than 15, even to single digits by August-end and September beginning. But cases started rising again before the Pujas with markets and malls overcrowded with shoppers.

“Number of patients requiring hospital admission was rising gradually and had shot up to 36/37 a day a week ago. But we are seeing a slight dip in the number in the past few days. We currently have around 22 patients,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.
Labs are also seeing a slight dip in positivity rate. From about 4%, many labs had started reporting a higher positivity ranging between 6% and 10% after the festival.
“The bed occupancy has come down a bit along with the positivity rate in our hospital,” said R Venkatesh, regional director (East) Narayana Health.
Some hospitals have decided to stick to the current Covid bed strength till at least two weeks post-Diwali.
“Post-Puja, we had about 12 patients daily on an average. The number started shooting up and reached 23, the maximum so far post-Durga Puja, before the number started declining since the past few days,” said Subhasish Datta, chief general manage (operations) Ruby General Hospital.
“Bed occupancy has remained stagnant with us for the past few days. Even as it looks like the situation is under control we are keeping a close watch and our facility is prepared,” said Pradip Tondon, CEO, Belle Vue Clinic.
Health experts cited vaccination as the reason for this lull in number and also the likely absence of a new strain. “We had feared a new strain cropping up due to the reckless crowding during Pujas that could have been disastrous. But with more patients now being asymtopmatic , we hope to be moving towards herd immunity,” said Mitra.