Isolation and testing facilities, hygiene protocol and proper use of masks are some of the precautions being taken by the health department and private health-care units in the city to fight coronavirus though no case has yet been detected in Bengal.

The Telegraph takes a look at the arrangements at some hospitals and the airport.

Government hospitals

The health department has asked all medical colleges and district hospitals to set up isolation wards.

All 50 samples tested for current novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) till Thursday were found to be negative.

NICED is Bengal’s only authorised centre to test samples for COV-19. It also tests samples from Bihar and Odisha.

The Infectious Diseases and Beleghata General Hospital, the state’s only referral hospital for treating infectious diseases, has made arrangements to admit 40 patients in isolation. “We have cabins for individuals with attached washrooms to keep each person isolated. If anyone tests positive and the health department asks us to take more precautions we will do so,” said Anima Haldar, the principal of the Beleghata hospital.

The hospital had admitted 44 people till Thursday afternoon, but throat swab samples of only 25 of them were sent to NICED for tests. Haldar said the suspects were being admitted to isolation wards only if doctors in the emergency referred them.

Doctors are noting down the travel history of all patients in the isolation ward.“We are sending samples for tests only if the suspect shows symptoms that match the case definition of COVID-19. All samples so far have tested negative,” said Haldar.

NICED is sending the reports to the health department within 24 hours. The reports are then being forwarded to the infectious diseases hospital.

Two doctors at the hospital had earlier been trained to deal with such cases. Another doctor has gone to Delhi for training.

Three people were admitted to the isolation ward at Beleghata ID hospital on Thursday. Their swab samples have been sent for tests. Two of the patients had come from Japan and Thailand, and another was on a Dubai-Hyderabad flight, where a person from Telangana tested positive for virus.

Shanta Dutta, the NICED director, said the centre had ample kits to conduct tests. “If the number of samples increases, we would get more kits from the government,” she said.

Private hospitals

Doctors at private hospitals are also taking down recent travel history of patients visiting the out-patients’ department with fever or cough and cold.

“The doctors are also asking patients whether they have recently come in contact with people who have travelled from the coronavirus-affected countries,” said an official of AMRI Hospital, where a separate enclosure has been set up in the OPD for such patients.

The health department has asked private hospitals in the city to keep isolation units ready.

“We have had isolation units since the outbreak of viral diseases such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), we have isolation units,” said Pradip Tondon, CEO of Belle Vue.

Guards at several hospitals are providing hand sanitiser to anyone entering the premises.

Airport

National Disaster Response Force personnel visited the airport on Thursday and trained ground handling staff of the airport and airlines on how to take precautions and wear masks the proper way.

The health department has increased the number of doctors at the airport health unit since all international passengers are being screened for coronavirus.