New Covid guidelines for private hospitals

KOCHI: Following an alarming rise in test positivity rate in the district coupled with the Covid pandemic  putting severe stress on hospitals’ infrastructure and human resources, District Collector S Suhas on Tuesday issued a directive to private hospitals to utilise their resources to stem the spread of the virus.

Suhas said hospitals should not deny emergency treatment to any patient in the district. “All hospitals should keep 25 per cent of their high dependency units (HDU) and ICU beds for treating Covid 19 patients and should inform the details of beds to the District Disaster Management Authority. Adequate steps and care should be taken to ensure the separation of Covid and non-Covid patients. All hospitals with physicians should provide treatment for Covid patients diagnosed in their hospital as per the guidelines issued by the health department from time to time,” reads the order. 

“All private hospitals are advised to take KASP registration for treating Covid  patients. This will enable them to provide free treatment to Covid  patients who have financial issues, as decided by the DDMA. The treatment  expenses as per the Covid package under Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP) will be reimbursed to the hospitals in a time-bound manner,” the collector said.

It observed that Covid cases in the district have been on the rise  with more than 800 new cases recorded daily. “Most of the private hospitals are now treating Covid  patients and are supporting the DDMA in managing the situation. Doctors and administrators from several private hospitals are of the view that there should be a uniform pattern and direction given to private hospitals so that the district can fight the pandemic together as a team. This was discussed in detail by the District Programme Monitoring and Supporting Unit (DPMSU),” said the collector. 

1,122 test positive, 1,123 recover in district
Kochi: The district on Tuesday saw 1,122 more people testing positive for Covid-19 and 1,123 people recovering from the infection. Among the newly infected, 949 contracted the disease through local transmission, nine returned from abroad and other states, five are health workers and the sources of infection of 159 patients are unknown. As many as 206 cases were admitted to hospitals or First-Line Treatment Centres. At present, there are 12,258 active cases in the district. While 3,290 samples were sent for testing, the Covid control room received 598 calls on the day.