Bangladesh
ICU Beds Covid-19: General beds empty, shortage in ICU beds
Dhaka, August 18: The crisis of general beds in the capital's Covid-dedicated hospitals has ended. However, there is still a crisis of intensive care unit (ICU) beds for dying patients. However, unlike before, there is no rush of relatives from one hospital to another in ambulances for ICU beds.
Coronavirus infections and deaths have reduced recently across Bangladesh following months of hard lockdown. In coronavirus detection rate has also dropped from 32 percent to 19 percent. Daily deaths have also come down to less than two hundred. As a result, health and pathology experts think that the patient pressure in the hospitals has decreased.
Public-private offices-courts have been open since August 11 after the lockdown. All types of public transport, markets, shopping malls and garments as well as industrial establishments have been opened. However, health and pathologists fear that if 100 percent of the people do not follow the required hygiene rules, including wearing masks, the infection and death will increase again.
According to the August 17 statistics of the coronavirus bulletin of the Directorate General of Health Services, there are a total of 6,334 beds in 46 coronavirus-dedicated hospitals and clinics in the capital, including 17 at the government level and 29 at the private level. Of these, 4,272 are in government hospitals and 2,062 are in private hospitals. Of the total beds, 3,166 or about 50 percent are vacant.
However, the crisis of ICU beds in public and private hospitals still remains. The total number of ICU beds in the country is 893. Three hundred and eighty-two are in government hospitals and 511 are in private hospitals. At present there are 276 vacant ICU beds. Thirty out of 382 ICU beds are vacant in government hospitals and 246 out of 511 beds are vacant in private hospitals.
Besides, there are 204 vacancies in 701 public-private HDU (High Dependency Unit) beds. Of the 435 beds in government hospitals, 82 are vacant and 122 out of 266 private beds are vacant.
