A few days ago, the civic body had conducted two separate meetings with the representatives of the private hospitals and deans of government hospitals. “During the meeting with the representatives of the private hospitals, they have been asked to continue the present precaution and preparations to continue the fight. There is a chance of hospitals to stop COVID-19 precautionary measures,” a Chennai Corporation official said.

It may be noted there are as many as private hospitals in the city that have been given permission to treat COVID-19 patients. Representatives from almost all the hospitals took part in the meeting.

The official added that the private hospitals have been instructed to collect and maintain profiles of the patients so that the civic body could analyze the prevalence of the virus and assess the type of persons getting the infection. “They should follow standard operating protocols released by the state government and send periodic reports pertaining to bed occupancy. We have also requested the private hospitals not to decrease the number of COVID-19 beds,” the official said.

Meanwhile, during the meeting with the deans of government college hospitals, the civic body requested them to provide details pertaining to the bed capacity, availability of oxygen, ventilators and others.

“Presently, government college hospitals in the city have facilities to treat thrice the number of cases that Chennai has now. Apart from the civic body officials, representatives from the World Health Organization had also taken part in the meeting,” the official said.

The Chennai Corporation continues to maintain the number of sample testing in the city around 12,000 even though the positivity rate has come down below 8 per cent. As on Monday morning, the city had only 9,706 active cases, which is only 6 per cent of the total persons infected in the city.