Occupancy of high flow oxygen beds increased in north Kashmir

Srinagar, May 7: Amid the surge in COVID-19 infection cases across Jammu and Kashmir, the occupancy of high flow oxygen beds is increasing subsequently in north Kashmir districts, officials said on Friday.
North Kashmir comprising three border districts including Bandipora, Baramulla, and Kupwara in recent days have witnessed a huge jump in COVID-19 positive cases.
The nodal officers appointed to handle the COVID-19 situation in respective districts said that the figure of occupancy of high flow oxygen supported beds is increasing with the surge in cases while the Baramulla has 5 percent of its total positive patients requiring high flow oxygen support at hospitals.
Naveed Altaf, Nodal officer for COVID-19 in Baramulla said that the entire district has 50 percent of the total active positive cases requiring high flow oxygen.
“We have doubled the bed capacity with oxygen support which earlier were 364 after the oxygen plant was made functional at Government Medical College (GMC) Baramulla. Around 100 beds were added-on while more 40 beds will come up there in coming days for which the work is under process,” he said.
The nodal officer said that one more oxygen plant has been made functional in Sopore and 80 beds have been prepared there as well for COVID-19 positive patients.
He informed that all the local health centers across the district will have low flow oxygen supported beds for which a total figure of 200 beds are scheduled to be prepared and around 100 have already been prepared for the easy access of patients.
Naveed said that patients who don’t require high flow oxygen anymore are moved back to the health centers at their respective jurisdictions for low flow oxygen support.
“This step results in less occupancy of high flow oxygen supported beds for which special teams have been constituted to keep a check at their patients,” he said.
He also informed that 56 beds with high flow oxygen support are occupied at GMC Baramulla while 64 are still vacant.
Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, Nodal officer for COVID-19 in Kupwara said that the occupancy of high flow oxygen supported beds is increasing with each passing day.
“We have only one COVID-19 designated hospital which is Sub District Hospital (SDH) Kupwara across the district but there is capacity in different locations as well,” he said.
Sheikh said 67 COVID-19 positive patients are on high flow oxygen support at SDH Kupwara.
About the remote areas like Machil, Keran, and Karnah sector, the nodal officer said that all the patients are referred to SDH Kupwara.
“If the patients require high flow oxygen support in these remote areas all of them are referred to COVID designated hospitals by the concerned Rapid Response Team’s (RRTs),” he said.
Earlier, the officials in Bandipora informed that a total of 600 oxygen-supported beds have been prepared in the entire district and the work was underway to increase bed capacity as per the requirement.
In Bandipora an official informed that two COVID-19 designated facilities including district hospital as level-3 and at pazalpora as level-2 have been prepared where the patients so far requiring high flow oxygen have not come in bulk rather are given oxygen support at level-2 only.