With the pandemic spreading to tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns, the Centre is to set up regional training centres, in assistance with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), to organise training programmes for doctors on appropriate COVID-19 management practices, Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS, said on Friday.
“It is possible that doctors in many towns and villages don’t have access to the right information regarding management. We are preparing a protocol and training module that will be used to conduct sessions via the network of AIIMS hospitals across the country,” said Dr. Guleria at a press briefing.
At the briefing, the second one this week and a departure from a practice for most of this year, when the Health Ministry would only have a single meeting every week, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, said that in assessments by the government of public perception of the coronavirus there were three categories of people: One were those with “misplaced bravery” who believed that COVID-19 was a hoax and there was no need to mask up; the second was people with “misplaced fear” who were panicking and believed that they needed antivirals such as Remdesivir because they believed that they had come into contact with someone afflicted; and finally was the third category who were masking up and following COVID-appropriate behaviour.
Guidelines for children
The Centre had also released guidelines for COVID-19 management in children and in terms of deciding who needs to get admitted to hospitals. They don’t differ significantly from that for adults: only those with marked breathing difficulties need to be admitted. The rest could be managed at home with common medicines recommended for fever and in case of a persistent cough beyond five days, treatment with inhalable budenosoid, a steroid.
The government had so far dispensed 16.3 crore vaccines to States and more than 1 crore remained with States for them to be administered.
