In view of the spurt in Covid cases, Dhanbad district administration has decided to launch three new Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) by August 6. These will be at Sadar Hospital, Dhanbad, BCCL Regional Hospital, Bhuli, and Zonal Railway Training Institute, Bhuli.

The dedicated centres, meant for treatment of asymptomatic patients or patients with mild symptoms, are aimed at decreasing the load on the 100-bed Dedicated Covid Hospital (DCH) of Dhanbad, meant for treatment of serious patients. The first DCHC of the district was launched on July 23 in the Palamau Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in its 100-bed unused cath lab building.

Necessary arrangement for physical infrastructure, such as furniture and other resources, including health workers and doctors, is being carried out on war footing in all the three upcoming centres.

Dhanbad deputy commissioner cum chairman of District Disaster Management Authority, Uma Shankar Singh has also fixed a deadline for the launch of the three DCHCs. The Sadar Hospital based DCHC will be launched by August 2, while the ones at BCCL Regional Hospital and Zonal Training institute will be set up by August 5 and August 6 respectively.

The district administration has today deputed senior officers and assistant officers for the all the three proposed DCHCs, which will be developed as per the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). District Supply Officer Bhogendra Thakur and Executive Officer Amar Kumar have been deputed as senior and assistant officers of the DCHC at Sadar Hospital Dhanbad. For BCCL Regional Hospital, District Land Acquisition Officer Satish Chandra and Executive Magistrate Sushant Banerjee have been deputed as senior and assistant officers, respectively. For Zonal Railway Training institute, Additional District Magistrate (Supply), Sandip Kumar Doraiburu and Dhanbad Circle Officer, Prashant Kumar Layak have been deputed as senior and assistant officers to ensure all the necessary facilities in the hospital are in place within the stipulated deadline.

The district administration also instructed the health department officials of the district to start a dialysis facility at the Sadar Hospital as soon as possible. On July 22, too, the DC had instructed the BCCL administration to relaunch the suspended dialysis facility, and accordingly the BCCL management had restarted the facility at Central Hospital for the Covid patients on July 25. This apart, the district administration had also instructed the three private hospitals, including Asian Dwarkadas Jalan Superspeciality Hospital, Asharfi Hospital and Pragati Hospital and Research Centers to keep two beds reserved in their dialysis centres for Covid patients.

Deputy commissioner Singh had on July 27 instructed civil surgeon Dr Gopal Das to create a deputation of 60 doctors in the DCHCs as per the list submitted by Indian Medical Association (IMA) after the demand for the same was made by the district administration.

Dhanbad has so far reported over 280 Covid-19 cases. Over 140 people have recovered.