District Collector P.B. Noohu has said that there is no need for panic though the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing, but there should be added vigil and verve in the preventive measures.
Mr. Noohu, along with District Medical Officer (DMO) A.L. Sheeja and National Health Mission district coordinator Aby Sushan, was addressing reporters at the Press Club here on Tuesday.
He said the administration had decided to make available 1,550 beds at various first-line treatment centres in the district by July 1, besides increasing the number of beds at the Pathanamthitta General Hospital, which had been converted into a COVID-19 hospital, from 350 to 550.
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The District Hospital at Kozhencherry and the General Hospital at Adoor too would be made COVID-19 hospitals. If need be, patients would be admitted to the three private medical colleges in the district.
Mr. Noohu said 10 ventilators had been arranged in the government hospitals and 89 others would be made available in the private sector.
The DMO said Pathanamthitta stood second, next to Palakkad, in terms of the number of COVID-19 tests done. Dr. Sheeja said 60% of the patients in the district was asymptomatic. Though symptoms of the viral infection had manifested in certain persons after 14 days of quarantine, chances of others getting infection from them was less, she said.
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The NHM coordinator said the TrueNat installed at the Public Health Laboratory at the District Hospital in Kozhencherry would have the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCT) test in the next three weeks.
Dengue, leptospirosis
The DMO said the number of dengue and leptospirosis cases in the district had gone up considerably, compared to the previous years.
Sixty-five dengue cases had been clinically confirmed in the district, besides 275 suspected cases as on Tuesday. Leptospirosis had been confirmed in 40 persons and six died of the disease in the past five months, she said.