CHENNAI: Triage centres, set up to screen Covid-19 cases and decide the next course of action based on the severity of symptoms, will soon be extended to 12 areas spread across the zones of the city, the Corporation Commissioner said on Wednesday.
Currently there are three such full-fledged screening centres here which decide whether a person testing positive must be allowed home quarantine, be admitted to a care centre or to a hospital.
By increasing its number, hospitals’ load can be further reduced as those with mild symptoms will be assessed by post graduate doctors and others in these centres and they may be allowed home quarantine, Commissioner G Prakash said.
Currently, the Covid-19 Care Centres operated by the Corporation have a capacity of 12,500 beds, of which only around 500 are occupied, he further said. Other facilities at Bharathi Women’s College and Jawahar Engineering College are almost ready and admissions will start soon, Prakash added.
During the first wave, the Corporation had a capacity of 28,000 beds.
Now, some colleges, however, have been turned to Assembly election vote counting centres, and those that can be temporarily converted to Covid-19 Care Centres will be considered, Prakash pointed.
Further, the city has 8,000 volunteers for fever surveillance and in a few days, 12,000 such volunteers will be on duty, the Commissioner said. With regard to vaccination, the city crossed the 10-lakh figure as on Tuesday.
“We have about 10-15 lakh vaccines in stock. More vaccines will also be supplied to us from time to time,” Prakash said.
With a majority of the frontline workers already vaccinated, of the 16,000 active Covid- 19 cases in the city, only 230 are frontline workers, the Commissioner pointed.