Central team tells Bihar to manage its hospitals better, increase capacity amid Covid-19 surge

Citing Bihar’s case doubling rate, which was around 12 days, the central team cautioned the state to prepare itself to admit new cases in hospitals as they were rising alarmingly.

A three-member Central team has asked the state to ensure better management of its hospitals and increase their capacity given the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in the state.

A Central team led by Joint Secretary in Health and Family Welfare Ministry Lav Agarwal visits Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) to evaluate the Covid-19 situation, in Patna on Sunday.(PTI)

Citing Bihar’s case doubling rate, which was around 12 days, the team cautioned the state to prepare itself to admit new cases in hospitals as they were rising alarmingly.

Bihar with 26,379 cases, after 1,412 new infections were added on Sunday, could be looking at touching 50,000 cases in the next 12 days and 1 lakh in the next 24 days from now if the case doubling rate remained the same.

The Central team asked the state government to brace up for this challenge by creating capacity in hospitals to accommodate a rising number of patients while also improving its patient pick-up system through ambulances.

The Central team also stressed on increasing testing capacity in the state through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which was the confirmatory test for Covid-19. For this, it stressed on creating greater capacity for RT PCR. Bihar has the lowest testing rate in India.

The Central team also visited the Patliputra indoor stadium where the MSF (Medecins Sans Frontiers or Doctors Without Borders) has supported a 100-bed Covid-19 treatment facility.

It also visited a medical college hospital in Patna, besides the Rajeev Nagar locality to assess a containment zone, before leaving for Gaya late in the evening. The team would return to Delhi on Monday.

As the Centre stressed on RT-PCR tests, the state government assured to provide on demand testing facility to all Covid-19 symptomatic patients.

“Testing target is not relevant anymore as the government has decided to provide on demand testing facility to all Covid-19 symptomatic patients up to primary health centre (PHC) level,” said Anupam Kumar, secretary Information and Public Relations Department (IPRD), at a media briefing on Sunday.

District hospitals had initiated the facility of rapid antigen Point of Care (POC) testing. “The facility will be extended at sub-divisional hospitals on Monday and to PHCs this week itself,” said Bihar health secretary, Lokesh Kumar Singh during the joint media briefing.

Around 500 people were screened in Patna on the first day Saturday, after the government introduced the rapid antigen POC test in Patna through 25 testing centres and five mobile testing vans.

Together with rapid antigen POC test, RT-PCR, TrueNat and CBNAAT-based testing, Bihar tested 10,276 samples on Saturday as against 10,502 on Friday. The state health department has stopped sharing break-up of tests.

Two deaths were reported in the state, one each from Khagaria and Saran, as per the Covid-19 bulletin shared by the health department through its Twitter handle.

Seven deaths were reported from the AIIMS-Patna and the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), the two designated Covid-19 hospitals in Patna.

Singh said 836 people had recovered during the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 16,597. The state’s recovery rate of 62.91% was almost at par with the national average of 62.86%.

Patna recorded the highest number of Covid infections, which rose by 119, with 62 cases on July 18 and 57 on or before July 17, as per a tweet of State health department. The cumulative cases in Patna had climbed to 3,696, followed by Bhagalpur (1,601), Muzaffarpur (1,151), Siwan (1,102) and Begusarai (1,076).

Among other cases reported on Sunday, Rohtas accounted for 112, Samastipur 90, Muzaffarpur 64, Nalanda 62 and Gaya 59.

Covid-19 patient gives birth at AIIMS

A 25-year-old woman, suffering from Covid-19, gave birth to a baby girl at the AIIMS-Patna on Sunday.

“This was the first caesarean section delivery done on a known Covid-19 patient at our institute,” said Dr Sanjeev Kumar, nodal officer for Covid-19 at the AIIMS-Patna.

“The woman was admitted on Saturday evening with leaking amniotic fluid at full term pregnancy. Our team of specialists, comprising Dr Monika Anant, Dr Ritu, Dr Swmkar, Dr Sompraph and anaesthesiologist Dr Neeraj Kumar and Dr Mithun waited over 12 hours for spontaneous labour, with full monitoring of mother and baby. Suspecting foetal distress, our team decided on C-section delivery. Mother and baby (weighing 3kg) are both doing fine,” said Dr Kumar

The husband of the woman had tested positive in June before recovering on July 6.