In Bengal, pvt hospitals told to ramp up facilities
The private hospitals that have been roped in are AMRI Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Belle Vue Clinic, Woodlands, Calcutta Medical Research Institute, Charnock Hospital and Fortis Hospital.
West Bengal has recorded five cases of Omicron till now and most of the suspected cases have international travel history. STEPPING UP its efforts to check the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the West Bengal Health and Family Welfare Department on Monday directed seven private hospitals in Kolkata to ramp up their infrastructure to ensure prompt and quality treatment of international travellers who test positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in the state capital.
The private hospitals that have been roped in are AMRI Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Belle Vue Clinic, Woodlands, Calcutta Medical Research Institute, Charnock Hospital and Fortis Hospital. The hospitals were informed about the plan in a meeting on Monday that was led by West Bengal Health Secretary Sanjay Bansal and Director of Health Services Dr Ajoy Kumar Chakraborty.
West Bengal has recorded five cases of Omicron till now and most of the suspected cases have international travel history. The health authorities formulated the plan in anticipation of international fliers who might prefer to be isolated in a private medical facility in case they are found infected on arrival.
Sources said the state government has identified Kolkata’s Beliaghata ID and BG Hospital as the nodal hospital for Omicron patients and suspected cases. In case a traveller wants to stay at a private hospital, he/she will be shifted to any of the seven selected hospitals.
The five Omicron cases detected in the state are being treated at AMRI Hospital, Fortis Hospital, Medica Superspeciality Hospital, Woodlands Hospital and ID and BG Hospital.
The department has also decided that all international travellers suspected or found infected with Covid-19 will have to be kept in isolation in a hospital till they test negative for Omicron.
If they are found infected with Omicron, the patients will have to be kept in isolation from other Covid-19 patients due to the variant’s highly contagious nature.
Meanwhile, all Covid hospitals have been told to create three separate areas of isolation – one each for regular Covid-19 patients, suspected cases of Omicron and confirmed Omicron patients.
The state health department’s guidelines mandate that after genome sequencing detects Omicron in a patient, he/she has to be kept in isolation until they get two negative RT-PCR reports within a gap of 48 hours. Even after the negative report, Omicron patients will have to stay in mandatory home isolation for the next seven days.
According to a bulletin issued by the health department on Monday, West Bengal registered 439 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s caseload to 16,31,065. At present, there are 7,433 active cases in the state. Of these, 6,614 are in home isolation and 152 are in safe homes.
The districts that registered the highest number of Covid-19 cases are Kolkata (204), North 24 Parganas (77), South 24 Parganas (28), Hooghly (26) and Howrah (26). West Bengal’s toll due to the disease reached 19,726 on Monday as the state reported 10 more deaths.
All Covid-19 labs in the city will have to send samples of Covid-19 patients in areas within the jurisdiction of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Salt Lake and Rajarhat New Town with a cycle threshold (Ct) value less than 30 must be shared with the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine on specific days.
The labs have also been asked to share details about vaccination doses of the person being tested, their travel history in the last 14 days and why they are getting tested.
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