COVID-19 pandemic | Health Ministry issues guidelines for railway coaches-turned isolation wards

Amid surging COVID-19 numbers in the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued guidelines for the appropriate management of coronavirus infected patients in Indian Railways coaches-turned isolation wards for such cases, The Times of India has reported.

India registered over 10,000 COVID-19 cases for the fifth day in a row pushing tally to 3,43,091 on June 16 while the death toll rose to 9,900 with 380 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The country recorded 10,667 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours.

Considering the increase in COVID-19 cases, Railways has converted coaches of trains into isolation wards for those infected with the coronavirus.

For these COVID-19 care centres, the union health ministry has laid down the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), in which it asked Railways to designate state-wise nodal officers for allocation of trains and for coordinating with the respective State/Union Territory government, according to the report.

As per the SOP, the Railways will share the list of their nodal officers, with the States/UTs while the States\UTs shall also designate a nodal officer for coordination with Railways.

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Following this, State/UTs would send their requisition through their nodal officers to the nodal officer of Railways to get the allocation of these coaches, said the report.

Once the allocation is done, the train shall be placed at the required station with necessary infrastructure, and handed over to the District Collector/District Magistrate or one of their authorized persons, according to the SOP accessed by the publication.

The ministry has asked that separate coaches for suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases should be there to avoid cross-infection among them, the report said.

It further said that as far as possible, individual cabin should be assigned for each case. If the situation warrants, up to a maximum of two confirmed patients can be assigned in an individual cabin, the report stated citing the ministry’s guidelines.

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Also, the state/UT governments asked to map at least one coronavirus dedicated hospital for each train so that patients can be shifted to the hospital in case of emergency, said the report.

As per the SOP, there are 215 railway stations where train coaches converted to COVID care centres can be stationed, added the report.