Ranchi: The maiden post-Covid care
centre in the state started its operations at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) on Tuesday. The centre was set up in the wake of reports of people experiencing health problems post their recovery from Covid-19. The new facility is currently functioning from the Emergency section of the hospital. The centre will also counsel the patients, besides providing them post-recovery care.
Talking to TOI, Dr Prabhat Kumar of the Covid task force at Rims said, “There are frequent reports of people developing complications after recovering from Covid-19. However, the exact number of such persons is not available as they tend to visit different doctors.”
He added that most patients with post-Covid complications develop lung fibrosis, though problems related to psychology, chest and physiotherapy were also being reported. Kumar said, “We are expecting four to five patients to visit the centre every day on an average. The centre would operate from 10am to 11:30am and from 3pm to 4:30pm.”
State health department officials said that four such centres will be set up in other key urban pockets that have registered significant number of infections.
Sources said that the centres may come up at the Tata Medical College in Jamshedpur, Sahid Nirmal Mahto College and Hospital in Dhanbad, Shiekh Bhikhari Medical College and Hospital in Hazaribag and at the Bokaro General Hospital in Bokaro.
The reports of post-Covid complications have surfaced at a time when the Covid graph in Jharkhand has been on a steady decline. Many health experts had warned that the festival season, which started with Durga Puja in October, would lead to a spike in Covid cases but prompt action by the government and greater adherence to Covid protocols by the citizens have largely negated those fears.
Till Tuesday afternoon, the state had registered 1,10,457 Covid cases, of which only 1,759 are active. The Ranchi district had the highest number of active cases at 757, followed by East Singhbhum with 275 cases. The rest of the districts have active Covid cases in either single or double digits. The Ranchi district with a figure of 27,478 also had the highest number of recoveries in the state.