Several Bengaluru hospitals displayed a 'No ICU Beds' sign for the COVID-19 patients.
Bengaluru, the city with the highest number of active cases in the country, reported an all-time record of 16,662 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours on Friday even as Karnataka witnessed another day of biggest single day spike, the state health department said.
The state reported 26,962 COVID-19 cases in a day taking the overall caseload to more than 12.74 lakh, it said.
Healthcare infrastructure in Bengaluru - which was known as a medical tourism destination in the pre-Covid times - has been crumbling under the steep number of infections in the second wave.
On Thursday, Bengaluru took over Pune as the city with the highest number of active cases even as several of its hospitals displayed a 'No ICU Beds' sign for the COVID-19 patients. Bengaluru currently has 1, 49, 624 active cases.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa urged the Centre to supply 1,471 tonnes of oxygen and two lakh doses of Remdesivir.
The Chief Minister made this request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the PM's video conference with Chief Ministers of 10 states, where coronavirus cases have exploded in an alarming proportion.
The Karnataka government has ordered private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of beds for coronavirus patients and has permitted the private hospitals to use nearby hotels as step-down hospitals to cope with the rising cases, Mr Yediyurappa told the Prime Minister.
He also said that plans are underway to set up field hospitals with ICU facilities in the coming days.
The deadly second wave has caused critical shortages in oxygen, drugs and hospital beds, sparking desperate pleas for help across the country.