New Delhi: In the wake of the ongoing surge in daily Coronavirus caseload, Centre on Thursday wrote to all states and union territories (UTs) to ensure setting up of district, sub-district control rooms for Covid management.
It has also asked states and UTs to arrange adequate staff, doctors, and health infrastructure. The government has even directed states and UTs to keep a track of beds available in hospitals and make outbound calls to patients who are in home isolation.
The control rooms set up at district and sub-district levels should collate daily status reports of all patients under home isolation in their respective jurisdictions and submit them to the district administration.
Additional secretary in the Union health ministry Arti Ahuja, in her letter to states and UTs, also instructed that these control rooms must have real-time data on availability of Covid testing centres and ambulances and should be able to guide a caller on the process for availing these services.
Dedicated ambulances shall be allotted to each control room based on areal case load for transportation of patients, she said in the letter.
The ministry also said that these control rooms should be adequately staffed with medical doctors, counsellors and volunteers, among other relevant staff, and shall be equipped with ample phone lines to cater to the assigned population.
"Control rooms should also monitor the availability of different types of beds across the assigned health facilities and shall counsel the patients/ attendants to avail only the required services based on clinical symptoms and availability of beds. Clear and transparent mechanism for allotment of beds must be ensured by the control rooms," the letter read.
The letter was issued to Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary (Health) of all states and union territories.