The COVID-19 control room at the Coimbatore Collectorate has been revamped by adding more telephone lines to respond to enquiries from people.
The control room that functions round the clock has 10 telephone lines. Calls made to ‘1077’ will be routed to these lines and 10 staff who work in a shift will respond to queries. People who call from other districts need to add the code 0422 before the number.
An official from the Revenue Department said that a doctor and a health inspector would also be present at the control room.
People can call the control room to get information regarding availability of beds in different hospitals, availability of vaccines at vaccination centres, to know the nearest triage centre, and to clarify doubts with a doctor on medication and health conditions.
Those awaiting COVID-19 test result can also check the information with the control room by sharing the Specimen Referral Form (SRF) ID, said the official.
More beds in CCCs
Meanwhile, the Coimbatore district administration is taking efforts to increase the bed strength in COVID-19 Care Centres (CCC) in the district. The bed strength at the Codissia Trade Fair Complex would be increased to 1,500, according to Health Department. It already has 700 beds and 800 beds would be added. Eight CCCs in the district together had 2,567 beds as on Saturday, the district administration said.
Plea for oxygen beds
MDMK youth wing secretary V. Eswaran on Sunday appealed to Food Minister R. Sakkarapani, who is overseeing COVID-19 containment works in Coimbatore district, to convert the Government Hospital in Madukkarai in to a COVID-19 treatment centre.
He said that the hospital, which handled COVID-19 cases in the first wave from August to December 2020, was not offering treatment for the disease at present. According to Mr. Eswaran, Madukkarai region does not have a government hospital or CCC for COVID-19 patients.
The hospital has all basic facilities and can be improved by adding more oxygen beds. The hospital already has more than 50 beds, he said.
