NEW DELHI: Amid skyrocketing Covid numbers in the country, the Centre on Thursday asked states to reactivate district and sub-district control rooms to guide patients on healthcare services and prepare a daily report on those under home isolation.
In a letter written to states, Arti Ahuja, additional secretary in the Union Health Ministry said that control rooms staffed with doctors, counselors and volunteers should be functional round the clock, depending on the caseload, and should be able to guide callers for services such as Covid testing centres, ambulances, hospital beds.
“Control rooms must have real-time data on the availability of different types of beds across the assigned health facilities and shall counsel the patients or attendants only the required services based on the clinical symptoms and availability of beds,” said the letter.
The latest instructions came on a day the country reported 90,928 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours, 56 % higher than Wednesday’s daily tally. India now has confirmed 2,630 cases of the Omicron variant in 26– through whole-genome sequencing — even though it has now been established that the strain is the dominant one in many big cities and is sweeping through in many parts of India.
The weekly Covid positivity rate in the country which was under 0.5 % just a few days back has now jumped to 3.47 %.
Meanwhile, the letter instructed states that a clear and transparent mechanism for allotment of beds must be ensured by the control rooms and added that dedicated ambulances should be allotted to each control room based on area caseload for transportation of patients.
The Centre has also reiterated that control rooms would be responsible to make outbound calls to the patients under home isolation for regular monitoring of their status.
“One of the core responsibilities of the control room shall also be to collate the daily status report of all patients under home isolation in their jurisdiction and submit the same to the district administration,” the ministry directed.