The government is enhancing the health infrastructure to give proper COVID-19 care to as many people as possible in the weeks ahead when the patient load in hospitals is expected to rise several fold, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
The situation had been reviewed and the government had decided to increase the availability of beds with oxygen in all hospitals and at COVID First Line Treatment Centres (CFLTCs), Mr. Vijayan said here on Tuesday. As the situation was unpredictability, there should be adequate buffer stock of oxygen in all institutions, he said.
Beds in hospitals under the ESI Corporation would be converted as oxygen beds. Private medical college hospitals have also been asked to set aside 75% of their beds for COVID care.
A coordinated ambulance team will be readied at taluk-level to transfer referral patients from domiciliary care centres and CFLTCs to higher centres. Active caseload had gone up by 255% in just two weeks.
Mr. Vijayan said the government was doing everything possible to enhance the surge capacity, however, if the number of patients continued to go up at this rate, the health system would buckle under pressure.
Shortage of human resources was a huge issue and the government wanted more people, including doctors and nurses. It was up to the people themselves to be aware of the crisis that is evolving.
All disease containment measures should continue and people should exercise maximum vigil and follow COVID protocols to ensure that disease transmission levels does not go up further.
Mr. Vijayan said that given the high transmissibility of mutant variants, public health experts had recommended the use of N95 masks or double masking.
