Gurgaon: With the number of daily Covid cases showing a downward trend, occupancy rate in Gurgaon hospitals has also come down in the past few days.
Since June 1, the city has registered a dip of about 60% in occupancy rates at hospitals and now, the health department plans to reduce ICU and ventilator beds reserved for Covid patients from 75% to 50%.
General Covid ward beds will be reduced to 30% from 60% in each hospital, officials said.
The move will provide a breather to hospitals struggling to admit non-Covid patients.
Gurgaon chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Virender Yadav said: “We are getting less than 100 cases daily for the past few days and hence, we will reduce the existing 75% reserved ICU and ventilator Covid beds in 42 hospitals across the city to 50%.
For Covid ward beds, the reservation will be reduced to 30% from 50%.
The number of Covid beds might be reduced further depending on the case load.” The current positivity rate in Gurgaon is about 1%.
While there were 2,657 Covid patients in hospitals on May 1, the number fell to 201 by June 1.
The number of patients in ICUs has come down by about 95%.
It was 1,102 on May 1 and one month later, on June 1, the figure was 50.
The number of patients requiring ventilator support was 337 on May 1, on June 6, it was 22.
On Sunday, 81 Covid patients were hospitalised in Gurgaon and 29 of them were in ICU.
In the 42 hospitals across Gurgaon, there are 5,658 beds of which 2,829 are reserved for Covid patients.
Before the recent surge, 1,810 beds had been set aside for Covid patients.
Officials have said several Covid beds are vacant and they are discussing the possibility of reducing the number of beds further.
“We have asked the health department to submit a proposal on how many Covid beds can be reduced, given the current situation,” said a senior official from the district administration.
“This will help more non-Covid patients who are seeking treatment,” he said.