With a majority of Covid patients in home isolation amid a steady rise in infections, the Ranchi district administration has handpicked 24 doctors and assigned them to various localities for daily door-to-door visits to check on those who are ill.

Deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan said as many as 46 doctors had been assigned the job of attending to patients under home isolation under 24 incident commanders. Additionally, the district administration also released numbers for the Covid control room (0651-2200008) and ambulances (0561-2200009) for people to approach in case of need.

“We have also circulated doctors' phone numbers, along with that of the local incident commander, through various platforms. Doctors will work in two shifts, from 6am-2pm and 2pm-10pm,” he said. Doctors, he added, would either visit homes of patients in need or offer medical assistance over telephone.

“The idea is also to keep a tab on patients in home isolation and provide them proper consultation,” he said.

Currently, Ranchi’s active cases stand at 9,255. However, less than five per cent are admitted to hospitals, according to health officials. They said that compared to the previous wave, the rate of hospitalisation now was slower.

For instance, at Ranchi’s Sadar hospital, as on Monday, out of 480 Covid beds, only 22 were occupied. None of those admitted were critical, as per a hospital communiqué. At Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), about 60-odd patients were at the dedicated Covid ward that has 500 beds in all.