Two thieves and a policeman who was involved in their capture are among 153 people quarantined at Bengaluru's Victoria Hospital, the main Covid-19 hospital in the city which can accommodate around 400 patients at a time. The Covid-19 patients admitted in the hospital crossed the 150 mark for the first time on Saturday. In fact, cases have spiked in Karnataka in recent weeks -- with as many as 148 cases recorded each day since May 23, compared to around 50 in previous weeks -- following the return of people from high-prevalence states. However, hospitals in Karnataka are not creaking under pressure. Rather, the pressure is showing on quarantine and testing facilities. This is unlike high-prevalence states, where the demand for ICU beds, ventilators and hospital beds is exerting pressure on the healthcare system. “We have 115 beds in the trauma care centre for Covid-19 patients, but 36 beds are in the ICU and they cannot be used for patients who do not need intensive care. There are only seven patients in the ICU. We are using beds in adjacent building now. If we have around 400 patients then we will be at full capacity, but we can always discharge the asymptomatic patients, who are the majority, and accommodate more patients,” said Dr Balaji Pai, special officer in charge of the trauma care centre and Covid-19 facility at Victoria Hospital. With a total of 28,686 hospital beds allocated across 527 government and private hospitals in Karnataka for Covid-19 patients, and with only 1,874 active cases -- including 15 in ICU -- at present, the bed occupancy is just 16 percent in the state. There are 720 ventilators allocated across hospitals for Covid-19 patients, and none of them is on ventilator. “Covid hospitals are of two types -- one where moderate to severely sick patients are admitted and second for asymptomatic patients who can also be treated in a hotel and hostel setup. Now, because our hospitals have adequate beds, we are keeping asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patient in hospitals,” Health Secretary Jawaid Akhtar said. “Now our concern is that we have more than 80 per cent cases involving new returnees to the state,” said state Education Minister S Suresh Kumar at a recent briefing. While hospitals may not be feeling the stress, testing facilities for the virus and institutional quarantine facilities for those returning from other states are feeling a pinch. With a large number of people returning from states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan, they have been quarantined and their samples collected for testing. This has led to huge backlogs under Karnataka's testing and quarantine policies. According to data provided by the state government, there were 1.12 lakh people in 4,219 institutional quarantine facilities in Karnataka as of May 30, with districts like Kalaburagi having as many as 21,000 people -- mostly returnees from other states -- in quarantine. On the testing front, data provided by the state Covid-19 war room up to May 29 shows that nearly 10,000 samples are awaiting testing in districts like Kalaburagi, Vijayapura and Bidar, where large numbers of migrants have returned. In Kalaburagi, 11,757 of 29,611 samples collected till May 29 are pending testing, in Vijayapura it is 14,210 samples of 21,783 and in Bidar it is 9,964 of 23,960 samples. Karnataka has operationalised 60 labs for Covid-19 testing and tested a maximum of 13,581 samples on May 25, averaging 12,000 samples in recent days. Large numbers of returning migrants are being tested using the pool testing method to minimise usage of RT-PCR test kits. “Majority of the testing is handled by three premier labs -- NIV lab, Nimhans lab and BMCRI lab. These labs had to go on leave for two days to calibrate equipment since continuous testing was being conducted and these are sensitive equipment. They have worked tirelessly for several weeks. We are trying to see that testing is done faster,” state Health Commissioner Pankaj Pandey said. In order to reduce the burden on testing laboratories and quarantine facilities, the state government has decided to do away with repeated testing for asymptomatic patients -- as prescribed by ICMR -- and allow home quarantining for asymptomatic persons returning from other states. “Some new literature has emerged based on which our expert committee is of the view that keeping all the people returning from other states and countries in quarantine for 14 days is unnecessary,” the health secretary said. After seven days in institutional quarantine, the asymptomatic persons can be sent to home quarantine without testing under the new discharge policy. “In the context of growing pressure on quarantine facilities, we have revised the quarantine norms. We have no space because large numbers are needed to be quarantined. Too much crowding can also lead to spread of the disease,'' minister Suresh Kumar said. Of the 2,922 Covid-19 cases recorded in Karnataka since March 8, as many as 1,433 are returnees from Maharashtra who arrived over the last three weeks, 62 have been returnees from Delhi, 58 from Gujarat and 56 from Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka government has barred entry by road of people from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
