Coimbatore to set up triage centres for Covid-19 patients in all five zones

COIMBATORE: In a bid to start using beds in hospitals and Covid care centres (CCC) more effectively, the Coimbatore Corporation will establish triage centres in all five of its zones.
A triage centre will be the first reporting and screening point for any patient. It will decide if the patient needs a government facility or home isolation.
While the first triage centre will be set up at Siddhapudur, officials are planning to set up the second one at CODISSIA.
Stating that work to establish the centre at Siddhapudur had already begun, deputy director of public health Dr G Ramesh Kumar said, “We will be diverting five doctors from rural areas to manage these triages, which will be established in each zone. In Siddhapudur, a doctor has been assigned. We have requested for equipment like computers and more. Once it arrives, we will start bringing patients.”
Once triage centres are established in the zones, people the corporation who test positive for Covid-19 will be asked to report to the centre in their respective zone.
“The doctor there will diagnose them and based on their age, comorbidity and symptoms they will be assigned a bed either in a CCC or hospital. A few may be recommended to home quarantine,” added the deputy director.
Coimbatore Corporation commissioner Shravan Kumar Jatavath, who on Tuesday headed a Covid-19 review meeting, told officials that they should increase testing of people with flu-like symptoms and trace contacts of Covid-19 cases.
He directed them to identify returnees to the district and categorise those above 50 -- with comorbidities and those in congested areas.