Ghaziabad administration plans paediatric ICU ward for children
Ghaziabad: Anticipating another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ghaziabad administration has planned to set up small paediatric intensive care units(PICU) wards, having five beds each, in both private and government hospitals for treatment of children
Ghaziabad: Anticipating another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ghaziabad administration has planned to set up small paediatric intensive care units(PICU) wards, having five beds each, in both private and government hospitals for treatment of children.
According to official records obtained from the district health department, about 677 children upto the age of 10 were infected with Covid-19 between April 1 to May 13 this year.
While reviewing the situation, the Uttar Pradesh government appointed IAS Senthil Pandian C as the nodal officer and gave directions to the hospitals to come up with such wards.
“The paediatric ICU wards will come up in major private and government hospitals, with five beds each, that will be reserved for the treatment of children who require admission, in case they get infected,” said Pandian.
The two government hospitals on the list also include Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital and government- acquired Santosh Medical College.
In this context, the UP chief minister also gave directions on Saturday to all district hospital and medical colleges in the state to come up with PICU on priority basis .
“The CM directed that creation of PICU and training of staff, like paediatricians, technicians and medical staff, should go on simultaneously. He also directed that two community health centres in each district should also come up with PICU and separate staff should be made available for their operation. All the women hospitals in each district should be roped in for treatment of women and children,” read a statement issued by the chief minister’s office on Saturday.
According to state control room figures, the number of active cases stood at 309 on March 31, which spiked to 6,645 on April 30. As on Saturday (May 15) , there were 4,320 active cases.
“One of the major factors that has helped bring cases under control is starting early treatment and distributing a medical kit, containing essential medicines required in Covid-19 treatment, free of cost. About 60,000 medical kits have been distributed so far. We are also taking other initiatives to control the infection in the rural areas,” said Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey.
The kit distribution, which started on April 27, sees around 5,000 disbursal per day on an average. It contains prescription, along with medicines for patients having symptoms and also for those staying in home-isolation.
To help Covid-19 patients in rural areas, the administration has also decided to open up oxygen cylinder refilling facilities at Dasna, Loni, Modinagar, Muradnagar and Khoda. The Ghaziabad municipal corporation is already providing the refilling facility to patients with as many as 1,543 cylinders refilled and handed over to patients between May 5 and May 14.
“Similar facilities, each equipped to refill 25-30 cylinders, will also come up at the local body offices at Dasna, Loni, Muradnagar and Khoda. We have also decided to open referral facilities at Muradnagar, Loni, Dasna and Modinagar with 25-30 beds in the first batch. The facilities will be made operational in the next two to three days,” said Krishna Karunesh, officiating district magistrate.
Karunesh added efforts are also on to identify panchayat clusters in bigger villages where isolation centres with 5-10 beds can come up and oxygen cylinders can be placed for patients.
In rural areas, April has seen the maximum cases with 644 in Loni, 451 in Modinagar, 445 in Muradnagar, 110 in Khoda and 57 in Bhojpur,besides 406 in Dasna.
The Covid-19 cases have increased further in the rural area so far in May. The data compiled for the first 11 days of May by the health department indicates that there were 262 cases in Loni, 557 in Modinagar, 480 in Muradnagar, 71 in Khoda and 80 in Bhojpur besides 356 in Dasna.
