Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said that Madurai district will be getting over 50 high flow nasal cannula systems and medication that has been approved of by the World Health Organisation (WHO), to treat COVID-19.
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Mr. Radhakrishnan was speaking at a press meet on Monday. He was in Madurai to inspect measures taken to combat the growing number of COVID-19 positive cases in the district.
Earlier, Revenue Minister R. B. Udayakumar and the Health Secretary completed a round of inspections at fever clinics, the Government Rajaji Hospital, the Madurai Corporation’s telemedicine centre and the site where the All India Institute of Medical Sciences is to come up in Thoppur.
The Health Secretary also addressed health workers, conducted a review meeting with doctors and visited patients at the COVID-19 Care Centre established in Melur.
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Speaking at the press meet, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the State government has provided permission to the Government Rajaji Hospital to begin recruiting doctors and other healthcare workers on a contract basis to cater to the rising population testing positive for COVID-19. He added that increasing bed count and keeping track of streets where there the spread of COVID-19 is taking place, was important too.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the district has 1,477 tertiary care beds that will be useful in treating emergencies and severe cases. He said that COVID-19 Health Centres have 859 beds across various taluk hospitals and added that there are around 3,000 beds at COVID-19 Care Centres. A total of 475 people are currently under monitored home quarantine as well, he said.
There are 1,625 streets with less than three cases, 15 streets with between three and four cases and 32 streets with over five cases in the district, he said. A total of 21,148 streets have households that have been contained, he said and 219 have been barricaded.
Apart from allopathic treatment, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the Health Department is attempting to provide wholesome treatment including yoga and naturopathy treatment.
Speaking about the deaths recorded, he said that Tamil Nadu continued to have less than 1.5% fatalities. “We are not looking to hide or bury any details of deaths. We have noticed in the South that there are many referrals. The stigma regarding deaths is still high here. In the State, 85% of fatalities are usually because of co-morbidities. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has said that we need to look at a targeted means of solving these issues too. We are in touch with the National Centre for Disease Control,” he said.
He added that the State Government is looking at implementing micro plans in Madurai too, to combat the spread of the disease. “We are testing 10 times the number of positive cases that arrive each day,” he said.
The Health Secretary said that for the AIIMS project to progress, a governing body under the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Sunil Sharma, needs to be created and will likely be done by July 31 to ensure that the project is finished despite the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the State Government is in touch with both the Centre and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency regarding the speedy completion of the project.