Admit only symptomatic Covid patients, says Chandigarh Health Department

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 30

With the infections on the rise, the UT Health Department is making an attempt to keep Covid-19 beds available for serious and symptomatic patients rather than for those who would only occupy the bed for isolation.

UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg has directed that a decision about admission of a Covid patient in a health facility needed to be taken purely on medical reasons. A Covid patient should be admitted in case the doctor concerned advised admission for medical reasons like need for constant medical care with or without oxygen/ventilator support etc.

The patient should not be admitted to hospital for the purpose of isolation, the order stated.

From now on, all asymptomatic Covid patients would be allowed home quarantine as the first option.

The city has 125 active cases and being asymptomatic, most of them are in home isolation. The weekly positivity rate in Chandigarh is about 1.2 per cent.

In case an isolation facility (separate room with washroom) is not available at the home of the asymptomatic patient, they will be admitted in institutional quarantine facility like mini-Covid care centres. The Administration has made one such centre functional at Bal Bhwan, Sector 23-B, while another will start functioning from January 3 at Indira Holiday Home, Sector 24.

The Health Department has stated that based on current scientific evidences, the new variant of concern, Omicron, was at least three times more transmissible than the Delta variant.

“Considering the higher transmission rate, we need to be ready for a situation where a large population gets infected and hence the available health infrastructure need to be utilised judiciously. We have buffer stock of emergency medicines and the medical oxygen availability is also sufficient, said Garg.

Panchkula resort now a covid care centre

Panchkula: As Covid cases are rising in the district amid growing concerns of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, District Magistrate Mahavir Kaushik on Thursday notified ‘Jatayu Yatrika’, a tourist resort near Mata Mansa Devi Complex, as a Covid care centre. SDM Richa Rathee has been appointed overall in charge of the centre. Covid care centres across the district were shut earlier this year after the number of cases started declining. TNS

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