Covid Alarm: Set Up Makeshift Hospitals, Form Special Teams, States Told

States have been asked to set up makeshift hospitals and form special teams, the central government said on Saturday amid a nationwide alarm over a surge in coronavirus cases driven largely by the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In a letter to all chief secretaries, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said it is imperative to re-emphasise the significance of quickly upgrading health infrastructure in all states and union territories.

"This becomes all the more important since with the sudden increase in cases, we may start seeing a stressed health infrastructure," he said.

The centre also said that states may also consider leveraging hotel rooms and other accommodations linked with the Covid dedicated hospitals in government and private sector to cater to patients having 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. These cases would require effective follow up and a clearly defined mechanism for prompt shifting to a health facility in case of deterioration in their health situation," Mr Bhushan said.

He said it is particularly important that all states should monitor their home isolation protocol and its actual implementation at the field level.

"Special teams be constituted to monitor all home isolation cases, call centres, control rooms must aid outbound calling for monitoring such patients and ensuring that all such cases can be shifted to an appropriate health facility through dedicated ambulances," he added.

"A mechanism wherein citizens can call and get ambulance and a bed in a transparent manner needs to be operationalised. The call centres, district or state-level dashboards/portals can play an important role in organising the same," he said.

Mr Bhushan said states are also requested to ensure that the existing Covid dedicated health infrastructure is revisited and necessary action to ensure its operational readiness be taken.

"A clear focus on rural areas and pediatric cases must also be maintained. States need to regularly review the availability of required logistics, oxygen availability and buffer stock of drugs across all health facilities in the state," he said.

To contain the spread of infection, the implementation of containment activities at the field level is essential, he said.

"Need for effective contact tracing coupled with quarantine of contacts, including facility quarantine for high risk and comorbid contacts, shall be taken up. Sufficient number of quarantine facilities shall accordingly be planned across the state," Mr Bhushan said.

India on Saturday reported 22,775 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, health ministry data shows, adding to concerns for authorities around the country about the rising number of cases.

The data indicates that thickly populated metros, such as the national capital New Delhi, financial centre Mumbai and Kolkata, are seeing some of the sharpest rises.

India witnessed a devastating second wave of COVID-19 last year when the daily average number of new cases peaked at around 400,000.

Caseloads had dropped significantly since then. For many months the national tally remained well under 10,000 cases a day.

Now, officials and medical experts fear the Omicron variant might fuel a third wave of the disease.