Private hospitals in the State can be allowed to have their own testing facilities for COVID-19 and to test patients that they might suspect to be having the disease, strictly within the stipulations of the Health Department, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
Private hospitals would have to ensure that they followed the testing guidelines of the Health Department. However, priority should be to give the required treatment to patients, the Chief Minister said while briefing mediapersons here on Saturday.
Hospitals in the State, both public and private ones, had started resuming their normal functioning and the footfall had increased, he said.
‘Surgeries can resume’
Elective surgeries are being resumed by most hospitals. All hospitals should, however, ensure that precautions for preventing disease transmission, including wearing of masks and use of personal protection equipment, were followed not just by doctors but also by all hospital staff, Mr. Vijayan said.
Private hospitals have been very cooperative with the government so far.
There were complaints that many private hospitals had not put in place the necessary arrangements required to ensure the safety of patients and visitors to prevent cross-infections and that there were not adequate PPE (personal protective equipment) kits supplied to the clinical staff. These should be addressed, the Chief Minister said.
He said that it was a matter of concern that people illegally coming into the State from neighbouring districts continued to trigger new patient clusters in border districts.
Seven more persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the State on Saturday. Three cases each were reported from Kollam and Kottayam districts and one from Kannur. One of the cases reported from Kollam is that of a field-level health worker.
Two of these persons had come from Sharjah, one from Maharashtra, while three cases are cases of local transmission, wherein the persons had contracted their disease from other imported cases.
Seven recover
Seven persons also got on the recovery list on Saturday. So far, Kerala has reported 457 cases, of which 338 persons have recovered from their disease. At present, 116 persons are undergoing treatment in the State.
The number of persons under surveillance is 21,004, of which 464 are in isolation in hospitals and the rest in home quarantine.
So far, 22,360 samples have been sent for testing, of which 21,457 samples returned a negative result, the Chief Minister said.
