Telangana: Data on Covid beds unchanged for weeks

HYDERABAD: The health department has not been updating the data on the number of beds occupied by Covid patients in its daily bulletin on Covid-19.

Experts say the government needs to update the data frequently to be prepared for any eventuality. Every day, from April 6 to 28, data on the number of occupied beds remained unchanged.

On all these days, the bulletin showed that three beds in government hospitals and 22 in private hospitals were occupied by Covid patients. On April 29, when this correspondent brought this to the notice of the office of director of public health, Telangana, the data was immediately updated in that day’s bulletin itself, which showed that seven government beds and 14 private beds were occupied.

However, the data again remained unchanged from April 30 to May 9, showing that seven government beds and 12 private beds were occupied.

When asked about the lack of update, director of public health Dr G. Srinivasa Rao said the reason for the same was that no patients were being admitted to hospitals. However, in that case, the data should have reflected the same, i.e. should have shown that no bed in the state is occupied by Covid patients.
President, Infection Control Academy of India, Dr Ranga Reddy Burri said the data needed to be updated on a regular basis.

“If that is not done, we may miss the early signals about increase in the number of patients, which may finally result in a public health problem,” Dr Ranga Reddy Burri said.

Dr Ranga Reddy added that as nobody had yet declared the pandemic to have ended, the state and Central governments should continue with measures like tracking, surveillance and frequent updation of information.

“The purpose of accurate data is that it is the basis for all our decisions and strategies,” he added.