E-Paper
UP initiates psycho-social counselling, patient pooling to tackle Covid crisis
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) health department, on Tuesday, initiated a number of measures to tackle the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in the state. These measures
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) health department, on Tuesday, initiated a number of measures to tackle the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in the state. These measures include patient pooling, alternate facilities for asymptomatic patients, and psycho-social counselling to help people deal better with the disease. The officials said that figures of UP till Tuesday afternoon stood at 314, while 168 of these included people linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi.
The officials said that there has been a lot of emphasis over the concept of psycho-social counselling of people, who feel mentally stressed in the present scenario. As such, the health department has roped in a team of 100 counsellors, who will be taking up calls and speak with callers seeking psychological counselling.
“There has been a lot of emphasis on psycho-social counselling of patients and people amid the present Covid-19 scenario. For this purpose, we have already opened up our helpline number, 18001805145, which solves queries of people regarding Covid-19. Now, this helpline will be more fruitful as we have a team of 100 counsellors, who will help people deal with mental stress in the present circumstances,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s principal secretary (health). “From Tuesday onwards, anyone calling for counselling will be connected to our counsellors and the caller can speak to them,” he added.
Additionally, the UP government has recently floated the Covid care fund in order to strengthen the medical and healthcare infrastructure in the state to deal with Covid-19 cases and also for any future upsurge.
To deal with Covid-19 cases, the government has also started with dedicated hospitals and has introduced a three-layered hospital system for Covid-19 positive patients.
The L1 category hospitals (in every district) will be at the lowest end, where all Covid-19 patients will be treated. In case, they face some complications, the Covid-19 patients from L1 category hospitals will be shifted to L2 category. In case of critical cases, the patients from L2 will be shifted to L3 hospitals, which have super specialty facilities.
“It is seen that there are districts where Covid-19 positive patients are fewer in number (for instance 2-3 patients). Even for smaller number of patients, we have to rope in resources, fill staff and also bring up a new hospital for their treatment. As such, we have given special powers to the divisional commissioners to pool in patients. Under this scheme, the divisional commissioner can shift a certain number of patients from one district to another under his/her division,” Prasad said.“This way, patients can come under one bigger hospital where staff and resources are already available. This can save our manpower and resources as well,” he added.
In another initiative, Prasad also said that it has come to light that about 75% of Covid-19 patients were asymptomatic but found to be positive for Covid-19 in the test results.
“In order to lodge asymptomatic patients away from symptomatic patients, we have decided to hire lodges, hotels or hostels near the hospital complex. In such places, all the asymptomatic patients will be kept and they will be treated by a dedicated team of health and paramedical staff. Once these asymptomatic patients move to hotels, lodges or hostels, their beds in the hospital willbecome vacant. These can be used up for treating other Covid-19 positve patients, who have complications or need immediate help,” Prasad said. He added that a government order to this effect will also be issued by Tuesday night and sent to all district magistrates in the state.
Meanwhile in Ghaizabad, the number of Covid-19 positive cases stood at 23 on Tuesday evening. The officials said that figure has stood at 23 since Saturday evening and no new positive cases have emerged in the district.
“On Tuesday, we received 112 test reports and all were negative. So the count since Saturday evening has stood at 23. So far, we have quarantined 263 people who attended various religious congregations. The containment exercise has also been taken up vigorously in different areas of the city,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer (CMO).
On Tuesday, the health department also installed a new machine with the help of which people can come and give their samples to check for Covid-19. “The setup contains a shield between the person who takes samples and the one who comes for giving the sample. There is a windscreen in between the two. The person collecting the samples will put his hands in gloves attached to the screen and take samples without any chance of getting infected,” Dr Gupta added.
