"Feeling Helpless": Bengaluru Doctors Amid Covid Surge, Lack Of Resources

With the surge in cases, the demand for medical oxygen and hospital beds has been rising fast in Bengaluru.

For Dr Shilpa, a junior resident doctor at a Covid care government hospital in Karnataka's capital, the most daunting task amid the deadly second COVID-19 wave is deciding between several critical patients when there is just one ICU bed left in the hospital on most days. "Most days, we will only have one ICU bed that is vacant and we have to choose between 30 sick patients, and choose one patient to be shifted to the ICU, knowing very well that the other 29 patients will die in the next one or two days," she said. Karnataka is battling a massive COVID-19 surge with 47,563 new cases today taking the overall count to 18,86,448. This is a relatively big number in the deadly wave of the pandemic in a state that did not see a spike in cases last year. Some 482 deaths due to Covid were reported in Karnataka today. With the surge in cases, the demand for medical oxygen and hospital beds has been rising fast in Bengaluru, as in other cities in the state. The positivity rate or the chances of getting infected in Bengaluru is around 40 per cent as the city reported 21,534 cases and 285 deaths today.