Special ward set up at Ooty GH to treat asymptomatic patients

Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients from the Nilgiris will no longer have to go to Coimbatore for treatment, as a special Coronavirus ward with facilities to treat 100 patients has been set up at the Government Headquarters Hospital in Udhagamandalam.

Officials from the Health Department said that previously all people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the Nilgiris were sent to the ESI hospital in Coimbatore.

However, as beds at the hospital in Coimbatore were quickly being filled up, the health department recently set up a ward to treat COVID-19 patients at the Government Headquarters Hospital here.

“It is a 100-bed facility with ventilators and qualified doctors, where asymptomatic COVID-19 patients can be treated,” said S. Palanisami, Joint Director of Health Services, Nilgiris district.

The Sait Memorial Hospital, which is under renovation, has been made partially functional to accommodate people who were waiting for their test results for COVID-19, but that isolation ward too will be shifted to the Government Headquarters Hospital, officials said.

So far, a total of 50 people have tested positive for COVID-19 till Thursday evening. Of the 50 people, 29 cases are active, officials said. While most of the patients have been admitted to the ESI hospital for treatment, four people are being treated at the Government Headquarters Hospital in Udhagamandalam.