CHENNAI: It was about 11 pm when a panic-stricken call came at the 104 COVID war room in Chennai on Friday night. A relative of a Covid patient had made the call, out of desperation, seeking an oxygen bed for the latter.
On the other end of the receiver was Chief Minister MK Stalin, listening to her woes patiently and assuring her of a bed immediately. Stalin was on an inspection visit to the facility when the call came. Introducing himself as the one attending her call, Stalin sought the patient's details and as to where he was admitted and whether or not he had got an ambulance.
In a video shared on the Chief Minister's Twitter handle, he is seen monitoring the live bed status at hospitals while attending the call. Photos and videos of the same had gone viral on social media by late Friday night. The patient was allotted a bed at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in about 30 minutes.
The war room was set up at the campus of the Directorate of Medical Services by the State government to centrally monitor status of beds, ambulances, and oxygen directly. The war room has helped in providing beds and streaming oxygen to private hospitals wherever required.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, DMK's Chepauk-Triplicane MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin also visited a tele-counselling centre at Teynampet and spoke to infected patients who are under home isolation through phone.