Indian Medical Association (IMA) in a letter to the District Collector has suggested total lockdown for 15 days in the district, to break the chain of spread of COVID -19. The outbreak has already reached the community spread phase and the rate of spread has been alarming, as in the last one week alone over 5,000 positive cases were recorded.
“Keeping this in mind, we have written to the District Collector, suggesting a 15-day lockdown period,” said P.A. Ramani, president IMA – Visakhapatnam.
The IMA has also suggested converting the Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) from State COVID Hospital to the district COVID Hospital. “We feel that the load of cases from the district is rising fast and heavy and at this juncture additional load from other districts may burden the district’s capacity, as the dedicated district COVID hospitals such as GIMSR, Gayatri and NRI teaching hospitals are bursting at their seams,” she said.
IMA has also suggested converting the ESI hospital and Rani Chandramani Devi (RCD) Government Hospital to full-fledged COVID hospitals and allow all COVID hospitals to have their own RT PCR testing centres, to bring down the load at the testing centres in the ENT and the Chest hospitals. Right now only a couple of private laboratories have been notified to conduct tests, a few more may also be roped in, said Dr. Ramani.
Home isolation
Keeping the spike in cases, the IMA is of the opinion that home isolation may be alternate solution to handle the situation. As long as a patient can be allotted a room with separate or attached toilet, home isolation for mild cases can be allowed officially, including in apartment complexes, said the president of IMA – Vizag chapter.
Home isolation with proper monitoring and medication through telemedicine facility, has proven to be a good alternative solution, as this will bring down the load on COVID hospitals and genuine patients with severity can get admission and be treated, which is the need of the hour, she said.
Medical experts from the IMA are of the opinion that people need not panic and rush to testing centres, as just by staying at home and maintaining basic protocol such as wearing mask, sanitising hands using soap water or alcohol-based sanitiser and observing minimum social distancing of three-feet, one can stay healthy, keep others safe and keep the virus at bay.
