The health department has asked all the government-run hospitals to reserve 70 per cent beds for Covid patients and also expressed the need to ensure similar reservations in private healthcare facilities owing to the unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases across the state.
In a letter addressed to all the Deputy Commissioner, Civil Surgeons, private hospitals and the director of Ranchi-based Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the health department stated that the various healthcare facilities in Jharkhand need to increase the number of dedicated beds for Covid patients in order to deal with the rapidly rising cases of Coronavirus infection in the state.
“Given the Covid-19 situation, it is imperative for all the government and private hospitals to keep at least 70 per cent of their beds reserved for Covid patients,” the letter stated.
In an earlier directive in April, the health department had asked private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of their total beds for Covid patients. However, the situation worsened since then, and the active caseload reached close to 60,000 in the state in no time, officials said.
In the letter, which was addressed to all the hospitals and officials concerned on Friday evening, the health department also stated the need for setting up isolation wards for asymptomatic and mildly-symptomatic patients of Covid-19.
“We need to set up isolation wards where Covid patients with normal oxygen level and mild to moderate symptoms can be kept,” the letter read.
The health department has also directed all private and government hospitals to provide treatment to all the “presumptive” Covid patients even if their RT PCR test results did not confirm Coronavirus infection.
Lately, several patients developed symptoms of the viral infection and needed hospitalisation even though their RT PCR tests came out negative. While the delay in the result of RT PCR tests was one of the reasons for keeping patients waiting for necessary treatments, doctors suggest that people with symptoms should start medications immediately without waiting for their RT PCR test results.
In a statement issued in mid-April, the health department had admitted that mutated variants of the Coronavirus often succeeded in dodging RT PCR tests and could be detected through High Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT). Following this finding, the state also fixed the price of HRCT tests in order to prevent exorbitant charges by private testing labs and clinics.
According to the latest government data, at least 57,000 Jharkhand residents were battling the infection by Saturday morning. On an average, around 2000 patients were added to the active caseload every day in the past couple of weeks as fresh cases outnumbered recoveries. The state has also reported more than 100 deaths daily in the past one week, taking the Covid toll up at 2670.