PUDUCHERRY: The BJP has urged the central government to convert JIPMER into a Covid special care hospital, considering the precarious situation in Puducherry.
In a memorandum to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, state BJP President V Saminathan said COVID-19 is spreading at a rapid pace in the UT, with around 2000 cases and around 30 to 35 deaths each day.
But in reality, more people are affected in Puducherry as many patients in hospitals here are from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. They are not included in the Puducherry data, said Saminathan.
In Puducherry region alone, a day earlier, the active cases climbed to 18,277, of which 2,107 are in hospitals and 16,170 are in home isolation. Now the situation is getting worse.
At present, the bed occupancy position in Puducherry is 519 in JIPMER, 440 in IGMCRI and 701 in all other Covid Care Centres. So totally around 1600 beds are filled and the number of vacant beds is insufficient to face the mounting number of new cases of around 2000 per day. Being a special care hospital, JIPMER also admits thousands of patients from Tamil Nadu every day, he pointed out.
In this context, JIPMER needs to be converted into a special Covid care hospital, which will serve patients of both Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, he said.