AIIMS to set up isolation beds in emergency wing

NEW DELHI: To deal with the spread of novel coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry has asked the AIIMS administration to designate a part of the new emergency wing of its Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre for setting up of isolation beds for suspected COVID-19 patients. This isolation facility will have a capacity to hold about 20 patients at a given point of time and once confirmed to be positive, the patient concerned will be transferred to NCI Jajhar for treatment, official sources said.

A separate entry gate has been delineated which will receive patients from the ambulance bay.  Based on the history and severity, patients will be triaged as Red, Yellow or Green case. Besides, the Ministry asked the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Jhajjar to augment its isolation bed capacity to 125 from the existing 25. Also,

the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry has been asked to keep aside 13 beds for isolating patients while six other AIIMS have been directed to keep an isolation bed capacity between 12-15 for coronavirus patients, which can be scaled up to 30 if need arises, the official said. The Health Ministry has asked states to set up rapid response teams at district, block and village levels stating that cases of community transmission of the disease have been observed.