The state health department on Friday made a number of recommendations to private hospitals, including monitoring the positivity rate of Covid tests and alerting the authorities about the locations from where multiple cases are being reported.
The hospitals have also been asked to increase their beds in a progressive manner. Opening satellite facilities, like the hospitals did in the earlier waves of Covid infections, was another suggestion.
The recommendations were made at a virtual meeting the department held with private hospitals in the backdrop of a sharp rise in Covid cases.
An official of the department had on Thursday written a WhatsApp message to hospital heads saying the number of daily new Covid infections in the impending third wave could go up to 35,000 a day, much more than the previous two waves of Covid.
“All private hospitals were asked to keep increasing the number of Covid beds in a progressive manner,” said R. Venkatesh, regional director, Narayana Health, which runs the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.
The RN Tagore hospital has 47 Covid beds and will increase the count to 100 in a few days. “We will increase the number of general beds as well as critical care beds,” said Venkatesh.
Health officials at the meeting asked the private hospitals to closely monitor the Covid test positivity rate (the proportion of the tests returning positive among the samples tested) at their diagnostic centres, Venkatesh said.
A number of private hospitals have witnessed a sharp rise in the positivity rate in the last three to four days.
A rise in the positivity rate suggests the infection is spreading among a large number of people in the community. “We were also asked to report if a number of cases were being reported from any particular place or district,” Venkatesh said.
Belle Vue Clinic had to increase the number of Covid beds twice in two days. The count rose to 66 from 34 on Thursday and to 87 on Friday.
“Eighty-two Covid beds are already occupied,” Tondon said on Friday afternoon.
The meeting also discussed the need to stock up enough medicines for Covid patients and arrange for adequate medical equipment and oxygen.
A major crisis resulted in many states form a severe dearth of liquid oxygen during the second wave earlier this year. “We were asked to keep high-flow nasal oxygen equipment ready, keep ventilators and other equipment necessary for critical care,” said an official of a private hospital.
Tondon said the health department also asked private hospitals to talk to hotels where the hospitals could set up satellite units, just like they did during the first and second waves.
The satellite units were set up to admit mild patients who did not require critical care but lacked space at home to stay isolated.
“We have spoken with the hotel where we had opened our satellite unit last time. We will open a 50-bed satellite unit there,” said Tondon.
One of those present at the meeting said an official of a private hospital had requested the health department to consider sending samples of Covid patients for genome sequencing every day.
“Samples are now sent for analysis twice a week, it may create a backlog,” the official told The Telegraph later.
Genome sequencing is done to know which variant of the virus has infected the patient.