Ahmedabad’s ‘multi-prong’ plan to rein in spread

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) claimed that its "multi-prong strategy" has worked in containing the spread of the virus, which was running rampant.

A note written by AMC commissioner Mukesh Kumar gives a glimpse into the civic body's fight. According to the note, the civic body used "various strategies from testing symptomatic patients, enhancing treatment capacity by roping in private hospitals and designating them as Covid hospitals" to rein in the spread.

Officials also focused on the treatment of "non-Covid patients suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, heart ailment etc. by insisting private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics to open their establishments for providing health services", Kumar's note states.

"This has helped in reducing overall comorbidity in the city resulting in reducing the morbidity risk to high-risk groups over 60 years of age," states the note.

Under the Epidemic Act 1897, the local body designated 62 private hospitals with an aggregate capacity of over 3,150 beds for treating patients. This is in addition to 3,000 beds in government-run hospitals which doubled the inventory to over 6,000. As on Friday, the number of active patients in the city was less than 4,000.

The other strategy focused on symptomatic patients and those falling in the high-risk group such as elderly, children, patients with comorbidities for their early treatment. The local body preferred treating patients who were in dire need of medical attention than those who were asymptomatic.

AMC officials said they deployed 128 Dhanvantri Rath mobile clinics, which conducted over 4.54 lakh OPD consultations.