COVID vaccination camps will now be held regularly within local body limits and more first-line treatment centres (FLTCs) will be opened across the district in the coming days.
According to sources in the district administration, the camps will be held in the Kozhikode Corporation area on Sundays and in municipalities on Mondays. The grama panchayats in Kozhikode taluk will be covered on Tuesdays, those in Thamarassery taluk on Thursdays, Vadakara taluk on Fridays and Koyilandy taluks on Saturdays. District Collector Seeram Sambasiva Rao told heads of local bodies during an online meeting that steps should be taken to avoid a lockdown. All the police stations would have a patrolling team led by an official not less than the rank of a sub inspector to monitor the compliance with protocol.
A release said there were 3,499 beds in 21 hospitals in the district to treat the infected persons. At present, 1,874 beds were empty. Four government hospitals are designated for COVID treatment and 137 of the 297 beds are available. In 17 private hospitals, 1,737 of the 3,202 beds are vacant.
Thirty-six intensive care units with ventilators too are vacant. Of the total 59 ventilators, 33 are available.
It is for the first time in five months that the number of fresh cases was crossing 1,000 and Kozhikode has the highest number of newly infected persons in the State. The district has 355 COVID care centres, 342 institutional quarantine centres and 13 paid quarantine centres. Koyilandy taluk has 93 COVID care centres, Kozhikode 138, Thamarassery 50, and Vadakara 74. Mr. Rao has directed all the local bodies with a high incidence of infection to immediately start FLTCs. Those with hotspots should have FLTCs with at least 1,000 beds. The Health Department is learnt to be taking steps to provide treatment for those in home isolation and people admitted to FLTCs as a majority of the infected here are asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, the district administration took over vehicles from government, semi-government, and cooperative institutions under the Disaster Management Act for COVID containment steps.
