In festival season, Bengaluru hospitals see more Covid-19 cases

Covid may be down but not out if the latest hospitalisation figures are to be considered.

At a time when new Covid-19 cases have stagnated at a daily average of 316 over the last 30 days, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been registering more and more hospital admissions as the festive season sets in.

In the last one week, the government hospitals in Bengaluru admitted 131 new Covid-19 patients, which is 19 per cent more than the previous week and 52.3 per cent more than the 86 patients admitted a fortnight before.

This is nothing compared to the high inflow of patients into private hospitals, municipal sources said. The Private Hospital and Nursing Homes Association (Phana) concurred.

Also Read | At 801 new Covid-19 cases, Karnataka sees lowest daily tally in 6 months

“A survey of all zones on Saturday morning shows that hospitals are reporting a 10-15 per cent increase in new hospitalisations,” said Dr Prasanna H M, president, Phana.

At individual hospitals, the rate of hospitalisation is even higher. According to Dr Sachin D, an interventional pulmonologist at Manipal Hospitals (HAL Airport Road), there has been a 45 per cent increase in the number of new hospital admissions in the last two weeks.

“Whereas from mid-July to late August, our hospital admissions numbered four to five per day, we are now admitting between 8 and 12 patients daily. This may not be a big increase but it is a warning sign,” he said.

Some 80 per cent of new admissions have mild Covid, 15 per cent have moderate symptoms and 5 per cent require ICU care.

“In this latter group are people with comorbidities, are immuno-compromised or are senior citizens,” said Dr Pruthu Narendra Dhekane, an infectious diseases expert at Fortis Hospitals (Bannerghatta Road).

A substantial number of hospitalisations involve partly or fully vaccinated individuals. “Most of the fully vaccinated hospital cases are senior citizens who were vaccinated as far back as May,” Dr Dhekane added.

Doctors said the catalyst for these hospitalisations is the monsoon which has triggered a deluge of viral infections camouflaging Covid-19, resulting in late hospitalisation. Adding to this is the festive season, which has seen a rise in social gatherings. When questioned, many patients revealed interstate travel or attendance of family gatherings.

“This is what happens when people let their guard down,” Dr Sachin said.

New variant hiding Covid?

Meanwhile, medical staff are being challenged in unexpected ways. Dr Prasanna said there has been an increase in patients testing negative for the novel coronavirus but nevertheless manifesting trademark effects of the disease, such as lung scarring.

“There is suspicion that many of these patients have a new sub-lineage of the Delta variant that could be confounding RT-PCR tests. This is our big worry at the moment,” he added.

Another problem is a deluge of mixed infections: people with Covid-19 and influenza or Covid-19 and dengue. “These are people who have Covid-19
symptoms but then we realise their platelet counts are also low and so when we do a dengue test, they also come up as positive for that,” said Dr Subrata Das, an internal medicine and diabetology specialist at Sakra World Hospital.

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