With record-high Covid cases reported daily in Bengaluru, the medical infrastructure in the IT city is being stretched to its limits. As of Monday, Bengaluru had just 9 ICU beds with ventilators available. While there were no ICU beds available at government hospitals and just 2 ICU beds with ventilators (ICU-V) were vacant at the government medical colleges and 7 beds at private hospitals.                                                

Distress SMS’ and calls for help were being forwarded across social media platforms. A video of a woman begging at the feet of hospital authorities for an ICU bed for her relative at the BGS hospital in Bengaluru is what got authorities to admit that there is a severe crunch.

When asked about the mismanagement regarding ICU beds, Karnataka health Minister K Sudhakar admitted that there were ground-level issues and that it would take 2 more days to enhance supply.

“There are some issues at the ground level especially with ICU beds, but over a period of 2-3 days, they (Private hospitals) have assured me that they will hand it over to us. This is a health emergency, I agree that there are certain issues we will try to rectify as early as possible” the minister promised.

Experts suggest that with this exponential rate of transmission, by May 1 we could be staring at close to 30,000 cases per day at which the requirement for HDU/ ICU bed could be anywhere close to 1,347 leaving the government with very few options.

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