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Covid in India: Bangalore cases surge; shortage of hospital beds

Bangalore - Court orders government to accommodate patients in defence forces hospitals.

The acute shortage of hospital beds for critically ill Covid patients in Bangalore has shocked the Karnataka high court, which reminded the state government on Tuesday that access to medical facilities is linked to the right of life enshrined in the Indian constitution.

Concerned about the “alarming situation” in Bangalore, a division bench of the court was unhappy with the marginal increase in the availability of hospital beds. The government told the court that there were only 74 high dependency units (HDU) beds and 14 ICU ventilator beds.

The court ordered the government to accommodate patients in hospitals of the defence forces as well.

A government official confirmed that the situation in Bangalore is critical and even senior bureaucrats cannot get an ICU bed or ventilator. The number of cases shot up from an average of 4,000 in the first week of April to 15,000 and more now.

Active Covid-19 cases in Karnataka has topped 300,000 and 31,830 new infections were reported on Tuesday. The total numbers have crossed the 1.4 million-mark. And with 180 deaths on Tuesday, the total figure has jumped to 14,807.

Bangalore urban district accounted for 206,223 cases. The city saw 97 deaths on Tuesday and 17,550 fresh infections. It has so far seen 687,751 infections and 6,002 deaths.