Gujarat govt allows three private hospitals to admit, treat COVID-19 patients

With rising numbers of positive coronavirus cases and increasing death toll at an alarming rate, the Gujarat government on Monday deputed eight senior IAS officer to supervise its fight against the deadly virus. Three of the senior officers have been deputed to monitor situation in hospitals and COVID Care Centre in Ahmedabad city, the worst affected in the state.

By Monday evening, total cases in the state stood at 1,939 while number of casualties was 71. Ahmedabad alone accounted for 1,248 cases and 38 deaths. Health officials said that Ahmedabad city is the second worst affected city in the country after Mumbai. On April 17, the total cases in Ahmedabad was 862 which shot up to 1248 on Monday.

The rising numbers have compelled the state government to rope in private hospitals and allow individuals who want to get themselves treated in these hospitals on their own expense. On Monday, principal secretary, Jayanti Ravi announced that three hospitals in Ahmedabad, HCG, Sterling Hospital, and Narayana Multispecialty Hospital have been given permission to admit COVID-19 patients. So far, government has been treating the patients free of cost.

According to Ravi, the rise in number of cases is mainly due to extensive testing in hotspot parts of the city, mostly densely populated walled city areas. She said, "1173 of Ahmedabad municipal limit, 912 cases have been detected in central zone and south zone which fall under walled city area." In the past 24 hours, Gujarat tested a record 4,212 samples (3000 in Ahmedabad alone) out of which 196 were positive. Till Monday evening, the state tested a total of 33,316 samples.

Earlier in the day, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said in his new briefing that with over 3000 tests per day, Ahmedabad is the highest city in the country and only behind the European and US cities in number of testings. He said that instead of waiting for patients to come to hospital, aggressive testings and surveillance have detected these cases which after a couple of weeks could have infected lakhs of people.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday deputed eight senior IAS officers posted in state capital Gandhinagar to oversee the fight against the lethal virus. In the move, additional chief secretary (ACS) Mukesh Puri, urban development, has been given the task of supervising all medical services at Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation run Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) hospital, while secretary of finance, Milind Torwane will be supervising dedicated 1,200 bed special COVID-19 hospital run by Asarwa civil hospital in Ahmedabad.

Tribal development commissioner Dilip Rana has been assigned to coordinate COVID-19 Care Centre at Samras hostel in Ahmedabad where, officials said, asymptomatic patients, will be shifted from the civil and SVP hospitals leaving the beds for serious patients. Additional Chief Secretary, agriculture, Poonamchandra Parmar will be coordinating and supervising patients who are critical and on ventilators. Woman and child welfare department’s Manisha Chandra has been ordered to supervise surveillance and tracking of cases across the state.

Jenu Devan, managing director, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd, has been asked to check supply of food and essentials in Surat where migrant workers have been clashing with the police. ACS, Panchayats, rural housing and rural department, A K Rakesh will be monitoring situation in Ahmedabad rural areas.