Need to increase beds: Central team to Bihar govt

The central team, which was here to assess the state’s preparedness against coronavirus (Covid-19), has suggested increasing the number of hospital beds to keep

The central team, which was here to assess the state’s preparedness against coronavirus (Covid-19), has suggested increasing the number of hospital beds to keep pace with the rise in cases, as it reached 27,455 after 1,076 new infections were reported Monday, with eight deaths pushing the state’s death toll to 187.

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Of the eight deaths, reported through the state health department’s Twitter handle, East Champaran accounted for two, followed by one each in Begusarai, Bhojpur, Purnia, Sheikhpura, Siwan and Vaishali.

Six deaths were reported Monday at AIIMS-Patna and five at the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), the two dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in Patna.

The state had also decided to write to the Centre to seek support in providing oxygen, which the central team said the state would need as the number of Covid-19 cases increase, said Bihar chief secretary Deepak Kumar.

The team also pointed to the need to motivate doctors at the hospitals in Bihar.

In keeping with the central team’s advisory, the state had asked the AIIMS-Patna to take over the 500-bed ESI hospital at Bihta, on the fringes of Patna, for Covid care, said Kumar.

“We will also take support of private hospitals in management of Covid-19 cases,” he added.

Two private hospitals — the Paras-HMRI and Ruban Hospital — in Patna were given approval on Monday to treat Covid-19 patients amid the rising number of cases in the city.

Patna district magistrate Kumar Ravi allowed the two hospitals to set up corona wards with 25 beds each to treat Covid-19 patients. These hospitals would, however, treat low to moderate cases only, said a source of the hospital.

Kumar said in addition to private hospitals, the government will also increase the number of beds in its hospitals, including NMCH and Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH).

The state government has already asked all its medical college hospitals to have 100 isolation beds for Covid-19 cases. The PMCH was expected to commence the facility in the next couple of days, said sources.

The chief secretary, whom the team members met before leaving for Delhi, said the team was in general satisfied with the measures taken by the state, especially during the lockdown, as also curbs imposed in containment zones.

The team, however, advised better perimeter control and health screening of people residing within containment zone to contain the spread of the disease.

Kumar said the central team was satisfied with the “open-ended measures” the state had taken to ramp up testing through antigen rapid testing kits.

“Now, the state will not have any testing target, but conduct testing of all symptomatic patients, who reach our facilities or mobile testing vans,” said Kumar.

The Centre had recently sent 10,000 rapid testing kits to the state.

Meanwhile, testing facility had started in 11 sub-divisional hospitals of the state on Monday, said Bihar’s health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh during the media briefing.

He said the facility will begin in 27 other sub-divisional hospitals on Tuesday.

Singh said there were 2,584 containment zones in Bihar, of which 1,931 were in rural areas and 653 in urban areas.

He said with the recovery of 938 Covid-19 patients, the total recoveries had gone up to 17,535, with a recovery percentage of 63.87%.

A three-member central team, headed by Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare (MoH&FW) had visited the NMCH to assess its condition on Sunday. Other team members were Dr SK Singh, director National Centre for Disease Control, and associate professor of AIIMS-Delhi Dr Neeraj Nischal.

The team also visited Covid-care facility in Gaya before returning to Delhi on Monday.