Noida: Around the last week of April, when the third wave of Covid-19 was wreaking havoc across the country, the Noida helpline was receiving around 10,000 calls daily. However, in the past 20 days, the number of calls has been declining. On May 15, just about 600 calls were made to the integrated Covid control centre — registering a near 94% dip.

Officials said that around 90-95% of calls on April 26 and 27 — when the highest number of calls were made — were regarding requests for beds at hospitals. Meanwhile, all other calls, including queries for vaccinations, oxygen cylinders, complaints and Covid testing, were marginal.Even as the volume has reduced, requests for beds still form 80-85% of all calls received by the control room. According to officials, this is indicative of reduced infection in the city and the need for hospitalisation in critical cases.

Officials said that while the district had been facing a shortage of ICU and oxygen beds, oxygen supply and supply of some essential medicines till a week ago, the situation has improved now. Also, the number of beds has grown to double the amount that was available during the last week of April.

“Officials have informed that there are fewer emergency calls now. We can provide beds soon after anyone calls on the helpline. We are also better prepared with the required infrastructure,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate (GB Nagar). According to official data, as many as 229 calls were made at the district helpline on April 1. This increased to 616 calls on April 9 and crossed 1,000 calls on April 13. From 2,620 calls on April 18, the number doubled to 4,201 on the next day. Similarly, while 5,390 calls were received on April 21, they increased to 8,130 on April 22.

The calls to the helpline peaked on April 26 and 27 with 10,301 and 10,316 calls, respectively. Since then, the number of calls has been reducing steadily. The number came down to 6,868 on April 29, 2,722 on May 4 and 1,215 on May 11. In the past five days, the calls have been less than 1,000 every day. A total of 638 calls were received on May 15.

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