CHENNAI: The Covid-19 wards at Tower III block of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), functioning as an exclusive block for Covid-19 treatment since 2020, looked deserted on Tuesday as the lone Covid-19 patient got discharged on Monday.
Director of Medical Education Dr R Narayana Babu told TNIE that there is no Covid-19 case in government medical colleges across Tamil Nadu, including those in Chennai. There are only five suspected cases, he added.
Tuesday was the first day since the first case was reported in Tamil Nadu that RGGGH had had zero cases. In March 2020, the health department opened an exclusive Covid-19 ward with 10 beds at the hospital. On March 7, the first Covid-19 case in Tamil Nadu was officially announced. The patient, a 45-year-old Kancheepuram native who returned from Oman, was admitted to RGGGH. At that time, news of the first Covid-19 patient getting treated at the hospital caused much panic among other patients.
From 10, the number of beds in the Covid-19 ward gradually increased to more than 2,000, said Dr E Theranirajan, RGGGH dean. “The maximum cases we had had were 2,090 in 2021. The peak was in April-May that year. From May 22, 2021 onwards, case load started declining,” Theranirajan added.
Narayana Babu, however, said the State is prepared to face threats from new variants of Covid-19 like the XE, and a few beds are reserved for Covid-19 cases in all medical college hospitals across Tamil Nadu, he added.
It may be noted that when Covid-19’s second wave was at its peak in April-May 2021, the State was struggling for oxygen beds. There were long queues of ambulances carrying Covid-19 patients outside almost all government hospitals in Chennai. According to health department data, the State had peak positive cases at 36,184 on 21 May, 2021 and peak deaths at 493 on 30 May, 2021. The peak positivity rate recorded was 20.78%.