As Capital City’s Covid positivity rate turns as bad as Mumbai and Delhi, the infrastructure to battle Covid-19 crisis in this tier-2 city have started to crumble with several Covid-infected bodies awaiting cremation for hours and shortage of life-saving drugs haunting patients and their kin even if they manage to find berths in hospitals amid the acute shortage of beds.
In the past 48 hours, Ranchi’s Covid positivity rate has been higher than 18 per cent. On Saturday, as many as 5442 swab samples were tested in Ranchi and 904 of them, around 16.6 per cent, were found infected. On Sunday, the positivity rate further increased to over 20 per cent in the district as 1076 of the 5174 samples tested were found to be Covid-infected.
As per figures with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the positivity rate in Delhi during the past 48 hours has been around 10 per cent, while the positivity rate in Mumbai was around 20 per cent during the same period. The positivity rate in Ranchi was higher than that in Delhi and a shade lower than what Mumbai reported.
Even though the population and Covid tally in Ranchi is much lower than that in Mumbai and Delhi, two of the worst-affected cities in India, the high positivity rate here, has brought to light the lack of readiness to tackle a possible Covid explosion in future, say experts.
The state coordinator of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh warned that the virus was spreading more rapidly during the second wave in Jharkhand cities, and a lack of caution may prove to be disastrous.
Many Covid patients, including some with comorbid conditions, had to run from pillar to post to get a bed in a hospital during the past two days. As per government data, there are 2383 dedicated Covid beds in Ranchi for 6,701 patients, as reported on Sunday night.
Vikas Kumar, a resident of Upper Bazar, could not find a bed in a private hospital for his Covid-infected father despite contacting all the renowned healthcare facilities in the city on Sunday.
“There are no beds available in hospitals. Doctors have prescribed some life-saving injections, but those are also not available anywhere in Ranchi,” said Kumar, five of whose family members are battling the viral infection.
The crisis of Remdesivir, an anti-viral injection administered to symptomatic Covid patients to prevent replication of the virus, is posing to be a major challenge in treatment of Covid patients here. Health Minister Banna Gupta recently spoke to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan over video conferencing and sought more Remdesivir injections citing an acute crisis across the state.
“I have requested the Centre to provide injections and other drugs used for Covid treatment in sufficient quantity. We have received 1500 Remdesivir injections today (Monday),” Gupta said.
The second wave of Covid-19 has not only hit testing labs and hospitals in the city, but also affected cremation of Covid victims.
The electric incinerator at Mukti Dham in Harmu, used only for cremation of Covid-infected bodies, broke down due to alleged overburden on Sunday. Around a dozen Covid-infected bodies laid in ambulances outside the crematorium for the entire day and were eventually moved to some other location.