The Bokaro district administration has set up two Covid care centres with 200 beds in all as a contingency measure to be used if and when there is a surge in cases.
These centres will be in addition to, and separate form, the 90-bed dedicated Covid unit at Bokaro General Hospital (BGH). Barring the death of a 75-year-old Covid positive patient who was admitted with cardiac issues, 21 patients have been released from BGH after recovery. BGH is now treating two active cases, both of whom are said to be doing well.
Bokaro civil surgeon A.K. Pathak said, “In case there is a surge of positive patients at BGH, we have plans to accommodate only asymptomatic patients at the Covid care centres set up at Chas and Jainamoad areas where we have taken over two ANM training centres. Critical Covid patients will be admitted in BGH as it has 20 ventilators.”
He explained that the Covid care centres were meant to be used only when required. Patients admitted in these centres will be treated by doctors of sadar hospital or community health centres (CHC). There are 90 doctors, 120 nurses and 350 health workers at sadar hospital and eight CHCs of the district.
District epidemiologist officer Pawan Kumar said even though there were only two positive cases as of now, the health department had stepped up sample collection. “On Monday, the health department team had collected 188 swab samples which was the highest number till date. We have set a target of collecting 200 swab samples every day for testing. Earlier, this number was between 40-100 samples,” he said.
It makes sense to step up sample collection as Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) has cleared its backlog of tests. As of now, PMCH is able to provide test reports within two days. Additionally, as many as 40 swab samples are being tested using the Truenat machine at Sadar Hospital.
Since March 23, the district health department has collected 2,858 samples, of which 2,568 reports have already come in.
A health department official said they were keeping tabs on the arrival of migrants from other states. As many as 27,700 people have arrived in the district since May 1. Of them, more than 19,000 were migrant workers.
