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Covid care centres can open sans nod: Chennai civic body
As people scramble to find hospital beds amid the raging second wave of Covid-19, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Monday allowed private hospitals to open Covid Care Centres in collaboration with private hotels without approval from the civic body
As people scramble to find hospital beds amid the raging second wave of Covid-19, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Monday allowed private hospitals to open Covid Care Centres in collaboration with private hotels without approval from the civic body.
GCC commissioner G Prakash said the centres with necessary facilities can begin operations “straight away” by just informing the civic health officer via email. “This is to ensure that less symptomatic and asymptomatic patients go here. It will therefore relieve the load of hospital beds particularly,” he said, adding that pricing will be decided by the market.
The move comes as Tamil Nadu reported 16,665 new Covid-19 cases and 98 deaths on Wednesday, with Chennai recording 4,764 cases and 32 deaths. The state has, so far, recorded 1,130,167 infections and 13,826 fatalities due to viral disease.
Chennai accounts for 23% of the 100,000 tests conducted across the state daily.
As beds in the city’s top private hospitals are occupied, the civic body has turned educational institutions in the city into Covid Care Centres where more than 11,500 beds are available free of cost. Over the past one week, the bed occupancy has increased from 1,487 to more than 2,700.
As per government protocol, those who test positive for the viral disease are brought to the corporation’s screening and triage centres from where they are allotted home quarantine, Covid care centres and hospitalisation, depending on the severity of the symptoms. The care centres are for those with mild or moderate symptoms and those who do not have the facilities to isolate at home.
“Patients who require admissions but can wait for a day or two are reserving their beds to avail them when they become available after discharges,” said a doctor working with a private hospital.
More than 12,000 oxygen supported beds are scheduled to be made operational across Tamil Nadu, of which 2,000 will be ready by the end of the week, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said.
Officials, meanwhile, said that the Sunday lockdown and stricter restrictions have helped curb the steady rise in infections and, if the trend continues, the state could even see a plateau.
On Tuesday, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said: “In Tamil Nadu, we do not have a high number of infections like other states but we should keep our guard. 30% of those diagnosed require hospitalisation.”
“With cases falling over the last two days, we can plateau or reduce if we continue to wear masks and do not go out unnecessarily,” he added.
Gearing up to vaccinate the above 18 population from May 1, Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) on Wednesday placed orders for 1.50 crore vaccines. The state has vaccinated 5,551,744 people so far.
