Bengaluru records highest toll in a day: BS Yediyurappa says situation out of control

Bengaluru: The sharp spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths has resulted in Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa remarking that the situation has gone “out of control”. At a meeting with health officials on Friday, Yediyurappa ordered a 10-fold increase in ICU ventilator beds in Bengaluru.

The sharp spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths has resulted in Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa remarking that the situation has gone “out of control”. At a meeting with health officials on Friday, Yediyurappa ordered a 10-fold increase in ICU ventilator beds in Bengaluru.

On Friday evening, an “ICU on wheels” arrived at Bengaluru’s government-run Victoria Hospital a dedicated facility for seriously ill Covid-19 patients with a 40-year-old patient looking for an ICU ventilator bed. After about 30 minutes of waiting, the family of the patient was told there were no beds available and were asked to try another government hospital, located around 25 km away in Yelahanka.

“We were sent from Sagar Apollo Hospital (in the south), now we are shunted to Yelahanka. We do not know if he will survive,” said an attendant of the patient. Similar stories have emerged from across government hospitals in Bengaluru, with many Covid-19 patients dying while waiting for the allotment of ICU ventilator beds. There are also stories of mild and moderate patients sitting up to three days in wheelchairs strapped to oxygen machines waiting in the reception area of hospitals for allotment of a vacant bed with oxygen supply.

“I pulled some strings and got my relative a bed,” said a man who arrived with a patient, even as others were told that there were no beds at the Victoria Hospital. One family reported paying a Rs 40,000 bribe for a bed at a state facility in south Bengaluru after their elderly mother sat for three days, waiting for a bed to be allotted.