Thirty-bed upgraded primary health centres (PHC) will be designated as COVID-19 care centres (CCC) in Tamil Nadu.

In addition, deputy directors of health services (DDHS) have been instructed to select unused new buildings on the block PHC campus with 10 or 20-bed facilities.

Officials said that select 30-bed PHCs would be designated as CCCs. These should preferably be PHCs with less than five deliveries a month, they added. Each of the 385 blocks in the State has an upgraded PHC, while there are a few blocks that have two such centres. There are a total of 412 upgraded PHCs in the State.

Officials said that the move was part of guidelines from the Government of India.

“We have given general instructions to turn 30-bed PHCs into CCCs. We are yet to decide on the number of PHCs to be covered. These will primarily be for accommodating patients in the future,” an official said.

In a circular, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said that very mild/pre-symptomatic COVID-19 patients may be housed in CCCs for 14 days. Persons living in kutcha houses and those with no separate room for home isolation can be accommodated at the CCCs. All deputy directors of health services were instructed to identify suitable places, the number of beds and submit the details.

Issuing guidelines for CCCs, the directorate said that an adequate number of water taps with washbasins and liquid soap should be made available at the entrance of the PHCs.

Three-layer masks should be provided to all patients and non-touch infra-red thermometers should be used for screening of fever.

Limiting contact

All CCCs should earmark separate areas for conducting fever and Influenza-Like Illness outpatient services, along with specific waiting areas for people with respiratory symptoms. At least a two-metre distance should be maintained to limit close contact between the health staff and “potentially-infectious patients” in OPD rooms.

All COVID-19 patients should be housed in single rooms. If sufficient single rooms are not available, beds could be set up at least a metre away from one another. Oxygen provision should be made and at least two to three cylinders should be in working condition.

Non-critical patient care equipment should be available for patients. Sharing of equipment should be avoided. If not, it should be ensured that reusable equipment is appropriately disinfected between patients. All health staff with symptoms of ILI should be under home quarantine.