The Department of Health and Family Welfare on Monday said government and private hospitals should provide beds to patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARIs) without a confirmatory COVID-19 test.
Department Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that hospitals empanelled with the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust will be instructed to reserve ICU beds according to fixed targets, and add beds where necessary. The SARI cases will have to be admitted as a potential COVID-19 case. Once the patients are admitted, they will have to undergo a test. If the patient is found positive, he/she will be transferred from isolation to the COVID-19 block of the hospital. “If the test is negative, the person will be shifted from the isolation ward to the non-COVID block,” the Commissioner has said.
