The Centre recommended all states and Union territories to initiate the process of setting up makeshift hospitals and to have special teams to monitor patients in home isolation to deal with a possible surge in COVID 19 cases.
In a letter to all chief secretaries, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said it was imperative to re-emphasise the importance of timely and swift upgradation of health infrastructure in all states and UTs.
He said that this becomes more important because of the sudden increase in cases, because we may see a stressed health infrastructure.
The Centre has asked states to create field or makeshift hospitals to address the potential surge in cases with a view to ensure preparedness.
This can be done by coordination with DRDO and CSIR, as well as the private sector, corporations, NGOs, etc. Bhushan said this will aid in the process of rapid creation of field hospitals or temporary hospital set-ups.
The Centre said that states could consider leveraging hotel rooms and other accommodations linked to COVID designated hospitals in government and private sector to cater to patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID - 19, as was also done in some states during the earlier surge in cases.
A large number of positive cases may be eligible for home isolation. Bhushan said that these cases would need effective follow up and a clearly defined mechanism for prompt transfer to a health facility in case of deterioration in their health situation.
He said that special teams constituted to monitor all home isolation cases, call centres control rooms must aid outbound calling for monitoring such patients, and ensure that all such cases can be shifted to an appropriate health facility through dedicated ambulances.
A mechanism that citizens can call and get ambulance and a bed in a transparent manner needs to be operationalised. He said that the call centres, district or state-level dashboards portals can play an important role in organising the same.
According to Bhushan, states are asked to make sure that the current Covid dedicated health infrastructure is reviewed and necessary action is taken to ensure its operational readiness is taken.
A clear focus must be maintained on rural areas and pediatric cases. He said that states need to review the availability of required logistics, oxygen availability and buffer stock of drugs across all health facilities in the state.
He said that in order to contain the spread of infection, the implementation of containment activities at the field level is essential.
Need for effective contact tracing coupled with quarantine of contacts, including facility quarantine for high risk and comorbid contacts, must be taken up. There will be sufficient number of quarantine facilities planned across the state, according to Bhushan.