‘Lockdown in Delhi will help contain spread in Gurugram too’

TC Gupta, the additional chief secretary, mines and geology, employment, and housing, who has been appointed as the Covid-19 officer for Gurugram by the Haryana government spoke to Archana Mishra about the current situation in the district

TC Gupta, the additional chief secretary, mines and geology, employment, and housing, who has been appointed as the Covid-19 officer for Gurugram by the Haryana government spoke to Archana Mishra about the current situation in the district.

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Gurugram has been grappling with multiple challenges in dealing with Covid-19. How do you analyse the current situation?

The main problem is the availability of beds as some people who could be home isolated have been hospitalised. Teams have been deputed to monitor hospitals. To ramp up facilities, hospitals on Tuesday were directed to tie up with three or four-star hotels where moderately ill coronavirus patients can be isolated and have a provision for emergency medical treatment. At least five hospitals have assured of tying up with the hotels by Wednesday. Thirdly, there is a lack of government health facilities in Gurugram. In Civil Hospital, there are 21 beds only for suspected cases. Any moderate to severely ill case is referred to ESIC Hospital, which has only 72 beds, of which 14 beds do not have oxygen support. The 120-bed Medeor Hospital is not fully operational due to many reasons.

Many hospitals raised the issue that they do not have enough health staff even if they increase the beds. Their existing staff is also getting infected. Therefore, we have decided to provide private hospitals with paramedic staff. We can deploy over 400 health staff in Gurugram after discussion with the state government. Already, Medanta Hospital has been given an additional staff of 100. Likewise, nearly 64 are given to Medeor Hospital. The demand is for roughly about 200 health workers.

So far, at least 47 ventilators have been procured from the state warehouse and four from Civil Hospital. In all, 61 ventilators will be given to the SGT Medical College, as the 500-bed facility is being upgraded. Also, hospitals were directed to give preference to patients, especially those from Gurugram, who require hospitalisation.

Has there been an assessment on how many people from Gurugram have not been able to find beds?

With the mutual consent of private hospitals, we are starting a portal where people who require beds can register. The civil surgeon’s team will review the registration based upon parameters and medical reports. Health facilities will give preference to registered beneficiaries who require immediate hospitalisation. It is expected that over 200 Gurugram residents will register. Through this, we will get to know how many are not getting beds. However, people can directly approach hospitals too.

Hospitals and chemists have been complaining about the poor supply of medical oxygen? How is the administration tackling the situation?

Hospitals had earlier tied up with a medical oxygen supplier in Bhiwadi of Rajasthan. Since the Rajasthan government has imposed a ban on the export of oxygen to other states, the oxygen supply mechanism has been slightly affected. But to facilitate hospitals, we have connected them with a supplier in Panipat. The distributor has limited tankers and we are trying to supplement the distributor with tankers. Availability of oxygen is not a problem in Haryana but it is the logistics that have to be managed. It will be stabilised within a day or two.

After the lockdown in Delhi, will the Haryana government impose a lockdown in Gurugram?

Not yet. The issue was discussed at a state-level task force meeting on Monday. Lockdown has not been contemplated.

Are we seeing any impact of Delhi’s lockdown in Gurugram?

Because of a lockdown in Delhi, the spread will be contained due to less movement between the two cities. Daily cases in the last three days have almost stabilised. There is no exponential increase as it was happening a week before. If the stability is maintained, the situation will not worsen. But we are on our toes.