Covid admissions in Kolkata hospitals rising – Times of India

KOLKATA: The number of Covid hospitalisations has been creeping up in Kolkata, along with the uptick in fresh cases across Bengal. At least three private hospitals in the city currently have, between them, a dozen Covid patients. This comes after a period of no Covid patient in hospital for about two months.
The positivity rate has also started climbing across private laboratories and hospitals. Cases, though, remain mild, preventing a sharp upward spiral in admissions.
Experts have warned that hospital admissions might increase if cases continue to rise.
Covid admissions rise at private hospitals
With the number of coronavirus cases crawling up in Bengal, at least three private hospitals in Kolkata have admitted a dozen Covid patients this week after a gap of two months. The positivity rate has also started climbing across private laboratories and hospitals. Cases, though, remain mild, preventing a sharp spiral in admissions. Experts, however, warned that if cases continued to rise, it might push up admissions.
Since June 12, Woodlands, Peerless and AMRI have together admitted 12 Covid patients. While Woodlands and AMRI had none for the last two months, Peerless had one patient in April.
At AMRI, four each are admitted at its Mukundapur and Dhakuria units and one at Salt Lake. One of the patients is in ICU. “All our patients were admitted in the last three days. Barring a couple, the rest have a mild disease,” said AMRI CEO Rupak Barua.
Last Wednesday, a seven-year-old boy who had tested positive was admitted at Peerless Hospital. The child is under treatment at an isolated cabin at the hospital and is accompanied by his mother who has tested positive as well. While both have mild symptoms, the mother has not been admitted. “We have admitted a Covid patient after two months. The child admitted has very mild symptoms and tested positive after having fever for two days. He has no symptoms now and could soon be released,” said CEO Sudipta Mitra.
Two Covid patients are now admitted at Woodlands. “Our Covid ward had zero occupancy till June 12. Positivity rate at our laboratory has also increased sharply to 13% from just 3% last week,” said CEO Rupali Basu.
An average of 5-6 have been testing positive at Peerless over the last one week, Mitra added. The number had been to zero till then. “On Thursday, five tested positive at our laboratory, though all of them are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic,” said Mitra.
While other leading private hospitals are yet to admit a Covid patient, several has seen a rise in positive cases. At RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), one patient has been testing positive each day since Wednesday. “Prior to that, we rarely had a positive at our laboratory for three months,” said zonal head R Venkatesh. RTIICS has been testing around 25 samples a day.
Medica has not seen any Covid admission for nearly three months but 3-4 have been testing positive at its laboratory over the last one week. “It has started crawling up though the cases are so mild that admission is not needed yet,” said chairperson Alok Roy.