Operationalise war rooms, Covid Care Centres: Tamil Nadu govt to collectors

With the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 on the rise, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday asked district collectors to activate the war rooms and operationalise an adequate number of Covid Care Centres as part of the efforts to combat the third wave of coronavirus infections.

The Health Department also released an updated Covid-19 management protocol segregating positive patients into five categories to ensure that hospitals are not crowded. Home isolation, admission into Covid Care Centers/Covid Health Centers and mandatory admission to designated Covid-19 hospitals have been recommended for the said categories based on their co-morbid status, respiratory rate (RR), and SPO2 (Oxygen) levels.

In a letter written to district collectors, deputy directors of health, and officials concerned, Principal Secretary (Health) J Radhakrishnan asked them to strictly enforce the Covid appropriate behaviour among the public and not shed hesitancy in repeatedly penalising the defaulters like not wearing masks.

As of Monday morning, Tamil Nadu had 9,304 active cases, including those in home isolation, while the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 is increasing at a fast pace each passing day. Chennai tops the list with 3,550 persons under treatment for the virus.

Radhakrishnan asked the officials concerned to ensure strict adherence to masks, social distancing, frequent handwashing, and asking unvaccinated eligible persons and those due for second dose vaccinations and those in the age group of 15 to 18 years to get vaccinated immediately.

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“(Authorities should ensure) that the war rooms are fully activated and functional in the districts. They should keep the state war room and the DPH control room updated every day, adequate screening centres are opened, adequate Covid care centres are made operational, and enough human resources are deployed in the screening centres,” he said.

The Health Secretary asked district collectors to strictly adopt disease containment measures and indulge in focussed identification of index cases, source of infections and contact tracing and isolation. He also asked district collectors to put in place a home quarantine monitoring system, where patients quarantined at home are followed up telephonically on a daily basis.

On Clinical Management of Covid-19 cases, Radhakrishnan stressed adequate testing, tracing, and isolation, while asking them to ensure that 1.15 lakh beds currently available for Covid treatment are fully operational and an additional 50,000 beds, especially Covid care centres including interim Covid care centres are made fully operational.

He also asked district authorities to operationalise the Indian Medicine and Siddha Covid Care Centres to provide access to those who wish to take advantage of such streams under the supervision of stream doctors and those with asymptomatic and mild disease.

Radhakrishnan said the Government has made available adequate medicines and is regularly monitoring and reviewing the increasing numbers of cases reported per day internationally and nationally and in Tamil Nadu especially now in Chennai and neighbouring districts.

“Other districts also should be aware of the nature of high transmissibility of this disease and keep abreast and personally monitor the guidance received from time to time,” he said.

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