Vadodara overcome it’s first wave of Covid started in April successfully

Dr. Rao appeal to citizens of Vadodara to ensure proper precautions during the coming weeks of festivals

The most credible indicator of any City’s progression of COVID is the number of persons turning up with symptoms at OPDs and Hospitals for treatment and Oxygen support. Every other indicator would be incomplete and would be dependent on various external factors.

OSD Dr. Vinod Rao informed that based on this objective and measurable parameter, this week Vadodara has overcome its First Wave of COVID which started in April, successfully.

He shares, In early April, based on experiences of Europe and USA, we had made projections for Vadodara. Based on our projections, we made our 3 * 3 Strategy with 3 Layered and 3 Phased planning. The Three Layers were of COVID Care Centers, COVID Health Centers and Dedicated COVID Hospitals. The Three Phases were with first Phase in April, second in May and third starting from June.

We were expecting peaking to start from June. All our Containment and Surveillance efforts helped in delaying it by two months. It started in end of August and receded by beginning of October.

Dr. Rao said, The notable achievement of Vadodara is that they managed to have *GRADUAL AND STAGGERED PEAKING*. They successfully prevented Sudden and Steep Peaking, unlike other major Cities of India. They made it Gradual by *Flattening our COVID Curve* through strict Containment efforts in April – May, particularly in Nagarwada and Tandalja. They made it Staggered by ensuring that various parts of the City peaked across various months. They started with some parts of East and North Zone in April-May and gradually moved towards South and West Zones across the next five months.

‘We had projected that during the peaking we might have single – highest – day – hospitalization of about 4000 patients, and made adequate preparation for that. Since April, we kept on steadily adding Hospital beds and Ventilators and today we have about 120 Hospitals, 6,000 Beds and 540 Advanced Ventilators for COVID Treatment. Our days of highest hospitalization was between 15th and 20th of September, with about 3,300 patients across all Government and Private Hospitals together. At that time we were fully prepared with a capacity of 5,400 beds. Our highest occupancy of Ventilators was between 15th and 25th September with highest occupancy of about 360 Ventilators. At that time we had capacity of about 480 Ventilators, further informed Dr. Rao.

At no point in last six months the Vadodara administration fell short of Hospital Beds, Ventilators, Ambulances, Oxygen, Manpower, PPEs, Medicines or other equipments. All temporary issues were promptly addressed and resolved, even in the middle of the night. As of now the occupancy across all Government and Private Hospitals is about 2,250 Beds and 250 Ventilators. This include all the patients from rural talukas of Vadodara and patients from other districts. They expect it to reduce further for two weeks and then stabilize.

Dr. Rao appeal to citizens of Vadodara to ensure proper precautions during the coming weeks of festivals. Otherwise they can have a Second Wave in November – December. From their side they will remain in full alert till the situation subsides further.

He thank all Team Members including Media persons who worked risking their lives, without a day’s holiday, leave or rest across the last 200 days.