Gujarat: Tile hub Morbi ran out of beds, firewood as Covid storm hit

“The disease came like a storm,” says Kalabai Chauhan, the sarpanch of Ghuntu village close to Morbi city, the tile hub of India. Between April and March, circumstances tripled, the cremation floor ran out of firewood, the village’s Primary Health Centre struggled to acquire sufficient fast antigen take a look at (RAT) kits to provide a analysis, and in and round, the hospitals shortly crammed up.
Among those that died operating round for assessments and a mattress was Naran Chauhan alias Gulab, a 36-year-old civil contractor of Ghuntu. He bought fever within the first week of April, alongside along with his spouse Aruna and their nephew. The household lined up for a take a look at on the PHC, but it surely ran out of RAT kits. Eventually, a hospital in Morbi did a CT scan, and a physician advised them it indicated Covid-19, gave them medicines, and suggested dwelling quarantine.
When Gulab’s oxygen ranges dipped, Aruna tried for a mattress, unsuccessfully, at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, Gujarat’s largest hospital the place their niece works, the 170-bed government-run General Hospital, Morbi, and three non-public Covid hospitals within the district with 210 beds. By the time Gulab made it to a personal hospital in Rajkot, 60 km away, on April 9, he needed to be placed on a ventilator. On April 14, inside two hours of being dropped at Guru Gobind Singh Government (GG) Hospital in Jamnagar, Gulab’s mom, who had in the meantime examined constructive, handed away. Four days later, so did Gulab.
“Neither knew about the other’s condition. God tried us by fire,” says Aruna, the mom of three youngsters, the youngest 3. The household spent round Rs 7 lakh on Gulab’s remedy.

Since the final week of March, says former sarpanch Devji Parecha, Ghuntu, a village of 12,000, has seen 110 deaths — towards its traditional common of three a month. Parecha says the deaths began round March 25, with the village a draw for a lot of migrant employees working in ceramic factories. “Pyres have kept burning since and we have had to purchase two truck-loads of firewood. The government didn’t have any answers. Our PHC would get 15 testing kits daily, while 60 at least would be waiting for tests,” says Parecha, including that they lastly imposed a lockdown on personal, now in power for 40 days.
Sarpanch Chauhan says he and his spouse Amar additionally examined constructive. “Thankfully, my wife got an oxygen bed at a Covid centre set up by a ceramic factory in Bharatnagar, 15 km away,” he says.
Data accessible with the Ghuntu PHC, which caters to 5 neighbouring villages too, present 37 Covid circumstances in March, 97 in April, and 13 until May 10. “But the actual caseload is easily 1,700-1,800 in Ghuntu alone,” says Dr Piyush Patel, an area homeopath physician. “From the last week of March till April 17, I would get around 300 patients daily, almost 10 times normal.”
As of Tuesday, the official case depend for Morbi district was 6,076, with 84 deaths because the starting of the pandemic final 12 months. Around 800 circumstances have been registered since May 2. The district is among the many worst-hit in Saurashtra.
Till early April, the 100-bed General Hospital was the one authorities facility in Morbi treating Covid sufferers. The complete variety of ventilators (authorities and personal) have been 30.
A well being officer of the district, who doesn’t wish to be named, admits they weren’t ready for the surge. “An average 150 people would queue up outside the Ghuntu PHC, but only 25-odd tests were conducted every day in April. No one had anticipated the graph would rise so sharply… We had some breathing space only after the Morbi Ceramics Association donated RAT kits.”
Morbi District Collector J B Patel, nonetheless, denies any scarcity in testing kits. According to him, “The thrust, as per the directive of the government, was on RT-PCR tests, therefore PHCs were getting less antigen kits. However, it is true that doctors in remote areas relied on blood tests.”
Patel provides that whereas until April 13, RT-PCR samples of Morbi would go to Rajkot, now there’s a lab on the district’s General Hospital. “We tested 2,800-3,000 samples every day at the peak. The situation is now under control. Daily infections have been falling for the last one week.”
Now, apart from the General Hospital and sub-district hospitals in Halvad and Wankaner talukas, Morbi has 30 PHCs and 5 city well being centres (with 30 beds) solely for Covid and SARI (extreme acute respiratory infections), apart from a Covid centre at a authorities faculty in Jodhpar village with 100 beds. As of Wednesday, 745 of the 1,975 beds within the Covid remedy amenities have been occupied — together with 467 of the 868 oxygen beds and all 45 of the ventilator beds — Dr Chetan Varevadiya, Chief District Health Officer of Morbi, stated.
At Ghamshyampur village in Halvad taluka, among the many worst-hit in Morbi, Saroj Makwana, 29, and eight months pregnant, developed fever on April 9. Her husband Devji, a schoolteacher, first took her to a gynaecologist in Halvad city, who prescribed some medicines. Three days later, her oxygen ranges dipped. “A private hospital in Morbi said as Saroj was pregnant, CT scan wasn’t advisable and told me to take her to Jamnagar.” Saroj lastly bought an RAT Covid report on April 13 and was placed on oxygen assist at GG Hospital. On April 20, simply after she was placed on ventilator, she went into labour. Both she and the kid died, says Devji.

Ghanshyampur sarpanch Rugnth Tarbundiya says 25 folks have died of Covid within the village of three,000-odd folks since March 25. “Some died as they could not find a bed, others couldn’t afford a hospital,” says Tarbundiya, who spent Rs 1.5 lakh at a personal hospital in Halvad the place he was stored on oxygen assist for per week.
Dr Ok M Rana, who runs a maternity dwelling however has been treating folks with Covid signs in Halvad taluka, says with testing kits scarce, they rely totally on blood assessments. “We recommend CT scan only to those who can afford it.” The closest imaging centre is at Dhrangadhra, 45 km from Morbi, and a scan prices Rs 2,000.