Marginal, yet steady rise in ICU admissions across hospitals

Most of those turning up in critical condition are senior citizens with co-morbidities; many of these elderly persons are also not vaccinated

There is a small but steady rise in the number of patients with COVID-19 admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) in hospitals in Chennai. Old age and co-morbidities are the main factors pushing up these admissions, say doctors. Many of these patients were also not vaccinated.

According to hospitalisation data in the daily bulletin issued by the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, the number of ICU admissions have gradually risen from 82 on January 1 to 256 on January 13. Doctors across hospitals observed that only the elderly with co-morbidities were admitted to ICUs as of now. While some said there could be a mix of patients with Delta and Omicron variants in the ICU, which cannot be confirmed without sequencing of samples, a few pointed out that there were no significant findings of lung involvement in chest CT as of now.

S. Chandrasekar, professor and head, Department of Medicine, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, said persons who were not vaccinated had more severe disease. “Age and multiple co-morbidities play a crucial role. Here, 80% of patients are aged above 60 and have uncontrolled co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, renal ailments and cancer. They have a more severe form of disease,” he said.