Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the officials to make arrangements for setting up special hospitals to treat the COVID-19 patients in the State.
Referring to various reports at a review meeting on Monday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the condition of 5% of the people who had contracted the coronavirus infection was critical.
“As many as 15% of the patients needs to be hospitalised. Necessary facilities are being set up in district hospitals. Special hospitals are needed to treat the critical cases,” said Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
More ventilators
At present, COVID-19 patients are being treated at the VIMS in Visakhapatnam, Siddhartha Hospital in Vijayawada, GGH at Nellore, and Padmavati Hospital at Tirupati.
“The Collectors of respective districts need to focus on the critical care facilities at those hospitals. The bed strength at the four main hospitals will be increased to 1,680 from 1,370. The beds with ventilator facility will be increased to 444 from the 148 at present,” he said.
There are 400 beds in the non- ICU facility at the VIMS. The beds with the ventilator facility would be increased to 148 from 36. At Siddhartha Hospital in Krishna district, the non-ICU beds will be increased to 500 from 450 and beds with ventilator facility will also go up from present 32 to 132. Similarly, at Padmavati Hospital, the ventilators will be increased to 50 from 25 and bed strength to 380 from present 320, he said.
At MIMS in Vizianagaram, the non-ICU beds will be increased to 900 from 780. At GITAM hospital in Visakhapatnam, the non-ICU beds will be increased to 600 from 400 and ICU beds to 25 from 14. Similar arrangements are being made in other districts.
The Chief Minister said the Collectors would have to monitor the COVID-19 hospitals. A special officer needs to be appointed at every hospital and all positive cases need to be shifted to these hospitals, he said, adding that private doctors could be empanelled. He said marriage halls, hotels, colleges, hostels could be used as quarantine facilities after sanitising the premises.
Quarantine facility
“As many as 5,000 beds are being provided to each district to convert the marriage halls, hotels, colleges, hostels as quarantine facilities. So far, 16,723 beds have been set up at quarantine facilities,” he said.
The government is setting up quarantine facilities in each Assembly constituency. A medical team will work at each facility. The people can use the facility if they don’t like to stay in their houses. Isolation facilities are being provided to those who don't have the required facility at home, he added.
