Intensive Care Units in Coimbatore filling up fast

Chennai: With an increase in Covid patients, the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in Coimbatore are fast filling up. In Coimbatore Government Medical College, 50 per cent of the ICU beds are already filled up and in the ESI medical hospital, all the 14 ICU beds are filled.

Coimbatore has reported 727 positive cases on Sunday and with the surge in the cases, the health officials are facing tough times on how to accommodate patients with extreme conditions as ICUs are getting filled up.

According to the Tamil Nadu government’s report, 127 out of 132 beds in the 26 private hospitals of Coimbatore are filled up. Doctors across the spectrum of hospitals in Coimbatore confirm that the Covid patients who are getting admitted in the hospitals are with low Oxygen saturation levels and have difficulty in breathing.

Dr Padmanabha Shenoy of a Private medical college in Coimbatore while speaking to IANS said, “The late hospitalization is a major issue for Covid patients, there are possibilities of heavy lung damage even after RT-PCR tests turn negative and only CT scans can reveal that. It is important that tests are conducted immediately after symptoms are developed.”

Doctors are admitting patients in ICUs only if the patients have a low Oxygen saturation level and when the CT scan results show positive.