The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has hired around 120 additional doctors and 100 nurses to provide medical assistance to patients in home quarantine at their doorstep. The move comes as a major share of the COVID positive patients in the city are in home isolation.
As per reports, GCC Commissioner G Prakash told reporters that a team of around 320 medical professionals will start visiting those in home isolation to provide healthcare services at their homes soon. He said that of the 33,500 active cases in Chennai, over 70% of the patients are being treated at home. This means that over 70% of the patients currently positive for the virus have zero to mild symptoms of COVID-19, which does not need hospitalisation.
He also said that of the remaining active cases, around 13% need high-grade treatment and that persons who need high-grade specialised care will increase in the coming days. The GCC has reportedly made arrangements to put up 1,000 beds in Chennai Trade Centre in Nandambakkam, of which around 860 beds will have oxygen facilities.
Similarly, the GCC will also develop 100 oxygen beds in Injambakkam, 100 oxygen beds in Manali and 240 such beds at the Tondiarpet Communicable Diseases Hospital in the next 10 days to be prepared to meet the surge in the number of COVID cases.
On Friday, Chennai reported 5,473 new cases of COVID-19 and 42 deaths due to the virus. A total of 5,327 persons were discharged, and the number of recoveries stands at 2,97,838. Chennai has 31,222 patients currently being treated for COVID-19 including those in home quarantine. As of Thursday, 14,50,926 persons have been vaccinated in Chennai and over 28,000 persons were vaccinated on Thursday alone as per the data given by the GCC.