82 COVID patients in ICUs; limited number of beds left for active cases

By Sheain Fernandopulle   

It was reported that 82 COVID-19 patients are currently receiving treatment at Intensive Care Units in hospitals, Deputy Director General of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said yesterday. 

He told media that 29,530 beds have been prepared for COVID patients in 191 treatment centres of which 26,243 beds are currently occupied as of now.  

It means only 3,287 beds are left for patients. However, the number of beds will further go down with the detection of more active cases.  

Currently, an average of 2,800 cases are reported daily.  

However, Dr. Herath told the Daily Mirror that there would be no issue at the moment in terms of scarcity of beds, as the number of admissions are compensated with the number of discharged patients.  
“There are also plans to add 9,000 more beds to the system in the near future and therefore, there is no issue with dearth of beds for patients,” he added.  

Currently, an average of only 1,900 COVID patients recover and are discharged from hospitals.  

Meanwhile, elaborating on the vaccination programme, Dr. Herath said 353,302 people have been vaccinated with the COVISHIELD second dose, while the first dose of Sinopharm has been administered to 
957,959 people.  

“Meanwhile, 64,986 individuals have received the first dose of Sputnik-V,” he added.