Sept 11 COVID Update: Critical patients in SMCH rises to 34 while beds in ICU remains 16; 150 positive in Barak Valley

On September 10, 28 patients were deemed to be in critical condition at Silchar Medical College and Hospital’s COVID wards. On September 11, as per the medical bulletin, the number of critical patients rose to 34. However, only 16 patients are in the ICU as only that many beds are available in the COVID Intensive Care Unit.

The expansion of ICU for COVID patient is going on in SMCH and the deputy commissioner has herself visited twice to take stock of the work in progress. The update, for now, is that the work is going on. Not only in SMCH but Hailakandi Civil Hospital and Karimganj Civil Hospital have also received the equipment and are planning to treat critical patients in their respective districts.

Recently, all three district administrations in Barak Valley imposed a 9-day lockdown in order to ease the pressure on SMCH. It is back mounting and on a challenging scale. Dr. Bhaskar Gupta, vice-principal, Silchar Medical College and Hospital informed that 44 patients are on oxygen support and three are under ventilator. “Four patients have died in the COVID wards of SMCH on Friday, two of them are from Cachar and two from Karimganj,” informed Gupta.

Reportedly, four patients died at the COVID wards of Silchar Medical College and Hospital yesterday are from Cachar and Karimganj District. Out of them, two are from Cachar viz Srikanta Chakraborty (82) of Link Road, Silchar and Basanti Bala Das (75 ) of Tarapur area , two are from Karimganj viz Tapu Nath (21) and Promod Das (62) .

Dr Gupta added that 16 patients took admission to the COVID wards after testing positive while the same number of patients were discharged too. Currently, there are 196 active patients at the SMCH which mostly caters to symptomatic patients.

Cachar health department informed that on September 11, 76 individuals tested positive for COVID 19. 64 of them were diagnosed positive after tests using Rapid Antigen Test Kits. On Friday, 1194 samples were tested using the RAT kits.

In Karimganj district, 64 patients were discharged from the various hospitals. 49 individuals tested positive for the virus. 714 samples were tested using the RAT kits in Karimganj on Friday.

Maintaining its low detection, Hailakandi reported 25 fresh COVID-19 positive cases on Friday. This takes the district’s tally to 2,720. Health authorities in Hailakandi disclosed that of the 25 positive cases, 17 have been detected under the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) while eight under RT-PCR. 648 swab samples, including 458 RAT have been taken on Friday.