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 When Reuters visited the hospital on Friday, its last coronavirus
patient was readying to leave after recovery - a remarkable
turnaround health experts attribute to growing levels of immunity
from natural infection and vaccinations.
But hospitals have learned from bitter experience during the second
COVID wave, when funeral pyres burned non-stop and bodies littered
the banks of the holy Ganges river, as India braces for another
possible surge in infections
https://www.reuters.com/world/
ndia/india-should-brace-third-covid-19-wave-by-oct-say-health-experts-2021-06-18
around its September-November festival season.
Beds have been added at facilities around the country, and hospitals
are working to ensure ample supplies of oxygen.
Ganga Ram is raising its oxygen storage capacity by 50%, has laid a
one-kilometre-long pipeline carrying the gas directly to COVID ICUs,
and is installing equipment to keep the oxygen flow high.
It has also ordered an onsite oxygen-generation plant, which are
mostly made in Europe and can take months to arrive given the surge
in demand globally.
"In light of the possibility of the emergence of coronavirus
mutants, with higher transmissibility and immune escape, the
hospital continues to prepare for the worst," said Satendra Katoch,
medical director of the hospital, in between guiding colleagues
doing an internal audit of its facilities.
The crowded private hospital, however, said it had no scope to add
more beds. During the peak of India's second wave, Ganga Ram
expanded its capacity by nearly 50% to about 600 beds, but even so,
some 500 patients per day had to be put on a waitlist for admission,
according to physician Varun Prakash, who managed its war-room
during the crisis.
Nationally, India has added many more hospital beds in the past few
months and imported more than 100 oxygen carriers to raise the total
to about 1,250. Companies such as Linde are planning to lift
https://www.reuters.com/article/
healthcoronavirus-linde-india-oxygen-idUSL4N2Q8227 the country's
overall output of the gas by 50% to 15,000 tonnes a day.
Linde told Reuters it had retained 60 of some 80 cryogenic
containers - meant to hold super-cooled oxygen - it had brought in
from the company's overseas operations, in case demand shot up
again.
"The distribution infrastructure and logistics fell short during the
second wave," Linde South Asia head, Moloy Banerjee, said.
The federal government, meanwhile, has approved the construction of
nearly 1,600 oxygen-generation plants at hospitals, though fewer
than 300 had been set up
https://www.reuters.com/world/
india/india-prepares-future-
covid-surge-cases-inch-up-2021-08-31 as of early last month as
imports take time.
[to top of second column] |
 HIGH ANTIBODY LEVELS
Almost all states are readying special
paediatric wards as some experts warn
unvaccinated children could be vulnerable to any
new virus mutations. States including Madhya
Pradesh are also stocking up on anti-viral drugs
such as Remdesivir.
But with a government survey estimating as many
as two-thirds of Indians already have COVID-fighting
antibodies through natural infection, and 57% of
its adults with at least an initial vaccine
dose, many health experts believe any new
outbreak of infections could be much less
devastating than the second wave.
"The number of susceptible persons will be less
now, as many persons have been infected or
vaccinated," said epidemiologist and
cardiologist K. Srinath Reddy, president of the
Public Health Foundation of India.
"Even if reinfections or breakthrough infections
occur, they are likely to be mild and mostly
managed at home. The serious gaps in
health-service delivery that were evident in the
second wave are less likely to be seen."
Kerala is seeing such signs already. The
southern state currently has the highest number
of infections
https://www.reuters.com/world/
the-great-reboot/keralas-
covid-19-lessons-india-modis-government-2021-08-26,
including many among vaccinated or partly
vaccinated residents, but its fatality rate is
well below the national figure.
At 33.1 million, India has reported the most
number of COVID-19 cases after the United
States, with 441,042 deaths. It has administered
698.4 million vaccine doses - at least one dose
in 57% of its 944 million adults and two doses
in 17%.
The health ministry, which wants to immunise
India's entire adult population this year, did
not respond to a request for comment on its
preparations for a potential third wave.
Epidemiologist and public health specialist
Chandrakant Lahariya said the data and trends
were encouraging.
"With the emerging evidence that for individuals
with past infection, single dose may provide far
greater levels of antibodies than people who did
not have infection or receive both shots of
vaccines, it is assuring for India."
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Additional
reporting by Shivani Singh and Nivedita Balu in
Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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