HT Correspondent
SILCHAR, May 18: State health minister Keshab Mahanta said that another oxygen generation plant will be set up at Silchar Medical College and Hospital with addition of 180 beds.
He also said that the number of ICU beds will increase to 240.
Mahanta said this in the course of two separate meetings held with the peoples’ representatives, college authorities and high-ranking officials of the district administration at the conference hall of Silchar Medical College and Hospital here on Tuesday.
The health minister also stated that within a very short span of time the beds for the Covid patients will be increased up to 460.
The health minister was apprised about the problems in all the departments of the hospital by the medical college authorities and said that steps would be taken to resolve them.
Environment and forest, excise and fisheries minister Parimal Suklabaidya took part in the meeting and asked the administration to set up camps for Covid testing in tea gardens in the district.
In this context, health minister Mahanta said that home isolation cannot be arranged in tea gardens. However, Covid care centres can be arranged.
During the meeting, member of parliament, Silchar, Dr Rajdeep Roy asked the administration to take steps to ensure continuous supply of essential commodities in the tea garden areas.
Deputy commissioner, Cachar, Keerthi Jalli made a powerpoint presentation and proposed to construct a dedicated water line to ensure adequate water supply to the medical college hospital 24 hours a day.
The health minister assured that action would be taken in this regard.
DC Jalli said 4,721 people have been identified as Covid positive in the district so far. Of these 2,663 are males and 2,058 females.
As many as 3,186 people have been treated and cured so far. At present there are 1,502 active Covid patients in the district. Of these 1,139 are in home isolation and 363 Covid patients under treatment in hospital.
So far 20,534 people in the district and 2,165 people have been identified positive through the RT-PCR test. So far 17,719 people have been tested under Rapid Antigen, out of which 2,656 people have been identified positive.
The deputy commissioner also pointed out that the infection rate was 3.3 percent.
The two separate meetings were attended by MLAs, Mihir Kanti Shome, Dipyan Chakraborty, Karim Uddin Barbhuiya, Khalil Uddin Majumder, district heads, among others.
The medical college meeting was attended by principal Dr. Babul Bezbaruah, Dr. Abhijit Swamy and all the department heads.