India’s health ministry on Tuesday announced plans for a three-tier network of Covid-19 patient management centres that will for the first time separate patients with mild and moderate symptoms from those with severe disease for rational use of hospital facilities.

The network — Covid Care Centres (CCC) for suspects and patients with mild symptoms, Dedicated Covid Health Centre (DCHC) for moderate cases, and Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCH) for patients with severe disease — will become increasingly relevant as the count of patients rises.

A medical task force set up by chief minister Mamata Banerjee also on Tuesday unveiled its proposal to classify Covid-19 patients into three categories, or “orbits,” depending on their symptoms.

The categorisation and separation that the task force has outlined is in line with the health ministry’s guidelines for the network and intended to provide appropriate and timely care, health officials said. Until now, all patients detected with Covid-19 symptoms — even mild symptoms — have been isolated in hospitals across the country.

“This will help us in better, more efficient distribution of human resources and infrastructure,” a state government official said. The three-tier network will allow the government to assign specialists and other doctors as well as critical care equipment such as ventilators where they are most needed.

The CCC — what the Bengal task force has designated as Orbit A — will be reserved for patients with mild symptoms such as upper respiratory symptoms, cough or fever. Global data suggest that around 80 per cent of Covid-19 cases have only mild symptoms and do not require hospital care.

The health ministry said the CCCs may be set up in hostels, hotels, schools and stadiums. Currently functional hospitals managing non-Covid patients should be designated as CCCs only as a last resort.

Doctors qualified in traditional systems of medicine may be stationed in CCCs under supervision of modern medical doctors, the health ministry said.

The Bengal task force said non-specialists from fields other than pulmonology or anaesthesiology could be assigned to Orbit A.

The DCHC, or Orbit B, will hold patients with moderate illness, including patients with pneumonia and respiratory distress but not severe disease. The DCHC will need oxygen support facilities and the patients will need intense monitoring.

Health officials in Bengal said up to 20 per cent Covid-19 patients could develop moderate disease.

The DCH, or Orbit C, is intended for patients with severe disease who will need critical care facilities, including ventilators.

Ambulances will be available round-the-clock at all three categories of care centres.

Community health specialist say the three-tier system would be needed when numbers become large. “When patients’ numbers run into thousands, we cannot keep people not critically ill in hospitals,” said Yogesh Jain, a physician and community health expert with Jan Swasthya Abhiyan in Bilaspur.

“We would be forced to keep them in a community isolation facility which should be close to people’s homes but with good facilities... Such patients would need to be monitored and shifted to hospitals only if they become severe.”