Corpn. sets up triage centre for COVID-19 patients

Coimbatore Corporation on Tuesday established a Corona Triage Centre at the Siddhapudur boys’ higher secondary school to act as a nodal point for COVID-19 patients.

The Centre would be the first stop for COVID-19 positive persons. It would be decided at the Centre where the positive persons would be sent to, said sources.

The medical officers at the Centre would assess the patient’s health by looking at their co-morbid condition and based on the outcome would send them to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital if their COVID-19 condition was severe and they had co-morbidities; to the Government Medical College and ESI Hospital if their COVID-19 condition was severe, but they had no other medical condition or if their COVID-19 condition was moderate; and, to COVID-19 Care Centres if the infection was mild or they were asymptomatic, the sources said.

The Corporation would transport the patient from house to the Centre and from there to any of the aforementioned places. The Centre would continue to remain the first stop even for those who had given samples at private hospitals or laboratories, the sources said.

At present, the Corporation had established the Centre in the Siddhapudur school, primarily to cover patients from the 20 wards in the Central Zone. In the next few days, it would establish a Centre each in the remaining four zones – North, East, South and West.

The Corporation felt the need to establish such centres because it wanted all COVID-19 patients to pass through one of the five triage centres and to primarily have a better management of beds at designated hospitals or care centres. And, also because it expected the number of cases to rise in the next seven to 10 days.