As the number of new COVID-19 cases shows a spike and the State is exploring the option of a total lockdown to prevent the movement of people, the Health Department unveiled its contingency plans, Plan B and C, which have been drawn up in anticipation of a possible public health emergency in the State.
The department had devised Plan A, B and C, with the help of its core committees managing infrastructure and private hospital coordination, anticipating that the number of people who would have to be put in isolation could go up drastically, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said in a statement here on Sunday.
Recruitment
The department conducted temporary recruitment of doctors to be deployed in Kasaragod if required.
The department was engaged in a massive exercise of arranging and putting on stand-by health care personnel, drugs, personal protection equipment, ventilators and other facilities, she said.
Plan A included 50 government hospitals and two private hospitals, which envisaged the availability of 974 isolation beds with provision of 242 additional beds if required.
Plan B, which was prepared as a complement to Plan A, included another 71 government hospitals and 55 private hospitals and envisaged the availability of 1,408 isolation beds.
However, the State’s containment efforts had been working well and as the patient numbers were still in two digits, Plan B had been put on stand by, she said.
Plan C was prepared to manage a situation when the community spread of COVID-19 became a reality and the government would need to find as many hospital beds as possible in the system as well as the private sector. It envisaged the provision of 3,028 isolation beds and 218 ICU beds.
Care centres
The State had also identified 147 buildings across the State as corona care centres, as part of Plan B.
These were being readied if huge number of people have to be quarantined, especially if these persons did not have the facility to go on strict self-isolation in their own homes. These centres together could accommodate 21,866 persons.
Government and private institutions as well as institutions with hostel facilities had been identified for the purpose, the Minister said.
