AIIMS, Rishikesh gears up for third wave of Covid-19 with children in mind

RISHIKESH: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences here is imparting special training to its nursing staff and creating a separate 100-bed Covid ward for children in view of the possibility of the third wave of coronavirus.

"With experts warning that the third wave may affect children more than others, we are leaving nothing to chance," AIIMS Director Ravi Kant said on Thursday.

The focus is on increasing the number of beds, equipment and trained manpower especially for children, he said.

An additional 100-bed Covid ward with 50 oxygen supported and 50 ICU beds is being created at the hospital exclusively for children, Dean, Hospital Affairs, U B Mishra, said.

A team of 55 trained resident doctors and 50 trained nursing staff has been kept ready for the treatment of children alone, he said.

"We have a team of 15 trained nursing officers in the neo-natal intensive care unit for newly born infants less than one-month-old. We have 30 beds in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and 25 in NICU already. But we are also creating a 100-bed additional Covid ward for children," Mishra said.

It means that 155 children can be treated at AIIMs Rishikesh at a time, he said.

The Uttarakhand High Court had on Wednesday reprimanded the state government for its lack of preparations in view of the third wave on Wednesday.

"Will the state government wake from its slumber when our children start dying in the third wave?" a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma had asked.

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