With the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu, the Director of Medical and Rural Health Services on Tuesday instructed private hospitals in the state to allocate 50% of their total beds exclusively for novel coronavirus patients. The communiqué also directed private hospitals to follow the protocols of the Union government and submit a daily report to the authorities.
The Director of Medical and Rural Health Services said, “The rapid surge of COVID-19 positive cases in the second wave of pandemic has resulted in increased need of hospitalization. The empanelled private hospitals are contributing to the health care services in addition to the designated government institutions in combat of this pandemic.
In view of present circumstances all the private hospitals are instructed to allocate at least 50 % of the total beds exclusively for COVID-19 patients duly following the norms as prescribed. It is further instructed to reduce the number of elective procedures and planned admissions,” the communication said.
All private hospitals are directed to submit a daily report to the Joint Director of Medical and Rural Health Services of the respective District / Director of Medical and Rural Health Services without fail and to regularly update the required details in the portal, https://stopcorona.tn.gov.in/
The announcement has come on the day Tamil Nadu reported 10,986 new cases and 48 deaths. The highest number of cases in Tamil Nadu is reported from Chennai with 3711 persons testing positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday. The next highest cases were recorded from Chengalpattu with 1029 new COVID-19 cases, followed by Coimbatore (686) and Thiruvallur (508) districts.
The state tested 1,01,329 samples from 99,246 people. The state also witnessed 6,250 people getting discharged after treatment, as per the Tuesday bulletin.
Among the 48 people who succumbed to COVID-19, 41 patients had comorbidities while seven patients did not have any comorbid conditions.