4 pvt hospitals to open isolation wards

Five more people tested positive on Wednesday for the H1N1 virus,bringing up the total number of people affected in the state to 61.

Five more people tested positive on Wednesday for the H1N1 virus,bringing up the total number of people affected in the state to 61. All five were sent to the isolation wards in the two hospitals.

While the health department has been asking people not to panic,people have been queuing up for tests at the three designated hospitals,one of which is at Tamluk in East Midnapore.

Every day,around 120-130 samples are collected and sent for testing.

Taposh Sen,senior health officer at the health department,said isolation wards will be opened are private hospitals like CMRI,BP Poddar,Apollo and Ruby Hospital.

We have asked 11 private hospitals to submit the required documents for the setting up of the isolation wards. We have one major criterion that has to be followed the AC at the isolation ward must not be a centralised one. Either the ward has to be non-AC or the hospitals have to install a separate AC for the isolation ward, Sen said.

At present,the two isolation wards in Kolkata are at ID hospital and MR Bangur,apart from the Salt Lake sub-divisional hospital. But with the number of positive cases in the city increasing,pressure is mounting on the private hospitals to upgrade their infrastructure and set aside a few beds in the isolation ward.

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