As Covid Cases Surge In Rajasthan, Patients Struggle For Beds, Medicine, Oxygen

As Covid-19 cases continued to surge in Rajasthan — with over 1.36 lakh active cases — people are struggling to get hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, injections and medicines with the health infrastructure in the state almost stretched to its limit.

For the last three days, Sohel Ahmed has been trying to get his 63-year-old mother Zubaida, a coronavirus patient, admitted to a hospital in Ajmer. "First they said she's doing well and she can be treated at home but from the last two days her oxygen level is dipping. I took her again to the government hospital here but they asked us to go home. But now it's getting scary as her oxygen level is below 80,” Sohel told Outlook over phone.

Patients unable to find a bed

For the past many days Sohel is trying everywhere to find a bed, appealing on social media or asking volunteer groups, to private as well as government hospitals. But so far he hasn't got any success. "I have made several calls – to government officials, to helpline numbers, volunteers, friends, everyone. But so far no one has reached out to us. The officials say they are as helpless as us," Sohel shared his ordeal with Outlook.

Sohel is not alone. There are thousands of Covid patients who are unable to find a bed or an oxygen cylinder. Rashmi Verma, 45, a teacher by profession tested positive for Covid four days ago. She was doing fine in the first two days at home in Jaipur but now she is finding it difficult as her oxygen saturation dropped and five other members of her family also tested positive. "I have been getting regular teleconsultation from a doctor. Earlier I was doing fine, but my in-laws’ condition is worsening. The doctor has advised them to get hospitalised and advised for Remdisivir injections and oxygen. We were unable to find a bed for them. So we bought one oxygen concentrator for more than Rs 1 lakh Remdisivir injections are still unavailable," Rashmi told Outlook. Rashmi, who herself is a Covid-positive patient and looking after her family, is already worried about how to get a refill after the cylinder gets exhausted.

We require much more oxygen supply than what we are getting at the moment: Nodal officer

While thousands of patients are in hospitals, many are unable to find a bed or an oxygen supply. The government has also appointed a nodal officer in each district to ensure the supply of beds and oxygen. Speaking to Outlook, Iqbal Khan, additional district magistrate, Jaipur, who is the nodal officer for oxygen, said, "From the past one-week, oxygen demand in hospitals has soared. We are ensuring the supply to government as well as the private hospitals but with the increased usage of ventilators, we are barely managing. In such dire situations, it has become difficult for us to refill the supply in the private houses. We require much more than what we are getting at the moment."

A team of three officers in each district has been constituted by the state government to ensure quick distribution of the beds. The president of the Jaipur team, Beerbal Singh, who is also posted as the additional district magistrate, North City, shared with Outlook, "The Rajasthan government has started a 24-hour control room, where a Rajasthan administrative services officer has been assigned duty day and night. The toll-free numbers for the enquiry about beds are 2205175/76. We are receiving calls every minute. Besides the beds, Remdisivir and oxygen cylinder enquires are the most. We try to help them and connect them with respective doctors."

While there has been a shortage in the Remdisivir injections in the state, the government on Sunday came up with a fresh circular according to which a patient in any private hospital will now be issued an injection after showing the prescription to the respective district collector.

On Saturday, Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma had said that the state has 8,532 oxygen-supported and 2,326 ICU beds for coronavirus patients in the state. Apart from it, 42,886 beds have been kept in isolation wards for infected patients at over 400 hospitals in the state, the minister said in a statement.

However, according to the official website, created by the health department to check the availability of beds, oxygen, ventilators in government as well as private hospitals, around 90 per cent of the beds, are occupied and in some districts, there are hardly any oxygen beds available. The website will get updated thrice daily at 9am, 2pm and 8pm.

On Monday, Rajasthan reported 16,438 new Covid-19 cases and 84 deaths, taking the active cases to 14,66,40, as per the state health department bulletin. The capital Jaipur reported 2,878 cases, followed by Jodhpur, Udaipur and Alwar which have also crossed 1,000 Covid cases per day. Rajasthan has already imposed a lockdown till May 3, 2021, owing to the surge in Covid-19 cases.