COVID-19: Second wave overwhelms Telangana’s healthcare system

Hyderabad: The rising numbers of COVID-19 cases has resulted in Telangana facing the worst ever situation during the ongoing pandemic. On average, 160 persons are getting infected from COVID-19 in one hour in the state. The second wave of COVID-19 is getting critical, as the daily cases are increasing and hospital beds are also running short.

According to the medical experts from the state, the next three to four weeks are going to be extremely critical.  They have advised citizens to strictly follow COVID-19 protocols. Moreover, with the increase in new cases, the fatality rate too is going up. 

On April 1, there were 3537 COVID-19 patients under treatment in the state’s government and private hospitals. But this number has increased to 10279 by April 15.  During the past 15 days, on average, over 6000 persons are coming to the hospitals daily.

According to non-official figures however, more than one lakh new confirmed cases have been recorded in the state during the last two weeks. Seeing the situation getting out of control, the Health Department had proposed new curbs like closing bars and mess, permitting only 50% occupancy in theaters and not allowing standing in metro rail and other public transport.

Earlier, only 61 government hospitals were treating patients. However, now the number of government hospitals has been increased to 101 by the addition of 40 new ones. The number of beds have also increased from 8477 to 11290. Earlier, the number of private hospitals treating Corona patients was 228, and that too has gone up to 372 with 8250 new beds.

Given the situation, it is said that a new COVID-19 patient is arriving in Gandhi Hospital every 10 minutes on an average these days.