PUDUCHERRY: With a spike in COVID cases and deaths, six private medical colleges in Puducherry have been directed to enhance the oxygen facility and conduct a minimum of 100 tests per day, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said at a meeting with private medical colleges on Thursday.
Private medical colleges here were advised to increase Oxygen machines to 100 from the 42 machines available at present.
And each medical college should conduct tests on at least 100 samples per day for which the government would bear the expenditure.
A deadline of September 10 has been given to all private medical colleges to comply with the directions, he said.
The minister said that two teams will be constituted to visit every household to take a census of people above 60 years and children below 10 years and conduct tests for them.
Hereafter those with minor symptoms will be sent to home quarantine only if they have a facility of separate room with a toilet, else they will be admitted to COVID care centres.
He expressed concern that in some cases, it has been reported that COVID positive persons are dining with their family members and thereby infecting them. It is not practically possible to monitor such behavior by positive patients, he said.
Taking exception to the central team's submission of minutes of a meeting between the CM and the officials to the Lt. Governor without submitting the same to the CM's office, the minister said that their assessment as released by Lt Governor is incorrect.
The assessment stated that 5 per cent of the total population was affected and the rest are susceptible to the infection, which the CM rued to be incorrect and added that nowhere in the world are 95 per cent people are susceptible to the virus.