U'khand has significantly increased ICUs, oxygen beds amid COVID-19 surge, says Health Secretary

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], May 2 (ANI): Amid a worsening COVID-19 situation, Uttarakhand has significantly increased the capacity of ICU beds, ventilators and oxygen beds, said Amit Negi, the state health secretary on Sunday.
"As on April 1, 2020 we had 216 ICU beds. On April 1, 2021 the figure rose to 836 and today this figure is at 1336, in just one month," Negi told reporters here.
Speaking to media persons, Negi informed that the state has increased the number of ventilators from 116 as of April 1 last year to 842 till date. The number of oxygen beds has been increased to 6,002, said the health secretary.
"The state also has 9,917 oxygen cylinders," he added.
Subsequently, the oxygen consumption of the state has also increased, he said.
"It was 8 MT on April 1 last year. This year, as on April 1, our consumption of oxygen was between 15-20 MT. As of today, our consumption is 100 MT. This is bound to increase as we are increasing the number of beds. However, the state has sufficient capacity to beat out the current consumption of the state," addressed the Health Secretary.
According to Amit Negi, Uttarakhand has a received 13,200 Remdesivir injections, an anti-viral drug used to treat some severe cases of COVID-infected patients.
IPS Amit Sinha, who is overseeing the black marketing complaints in the state, said in an official statement, "Even on Dial 112, there is a special section to receive black marketing complaints from the public. Within two days, we have received 147 complaints, on which we investigating."
Due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, there has been a huge demand for Remdesivir. Over the past few weeks, several cases of hoarding and black-marketing have been reported. Amid its increased demand, the Centre said that it is likely to increase its production to three lakh vials per day.
The Centre on Friday had also ordered that Remdesivir will only be administered only after a medical prescription is submitted. As per the new medical protocol, it will be strictly limited to severe conditions of COVID-19 patients.
Speaking to the media at the press conference, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of State Disaster Responder Force (SDRF) Ridim Aggarwal said, "SDRF is calling COVID infected people in home isolation to check on their requirements. Our team, on average per day, makes 5,000 calls. We also provide teleconsultation from doctors to these patients."
The SDRF DIG informed that the state plans to provide home isolation kits to COVID infected patients by tying up with Zomato, a food delivery company.
"We identify people in home isolation who have not received their home isolation kits from the CMO. Thereafter we tie up with Zomato in four districts namely Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital to provide these kits, to avoid any kind of inconvenience to the infected patients," she added.
DIG SDRF further appealed to the people to support their efforts and help them in contact tracing.
"Our teams are calling you. Do not think of it as a problem, instead, help them. The information that they are demanding is curial for your health and others around you," said Ridim Aggarwal.
As per the official data released by Union Health Department, Uttarakhand has 51,127 active COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, the state registered 1,635 new cases and 107 related deaths. (ANI)