‘Well-prepared & organised to mitigate 3rd Covid wave’

Ranchi: The state department of health, medical education and family welfare has estimated that Jharkhand’s 24 districts would require a total of 502 paediatric ICU beds for attending to kids who, according to experts, are likely to be infected severely in case there is a third wave of coronavirus.
In its preparations for the impending surge of infections, the department has estimated that up to 43,048 children, which includes newborns, might be infected with the viral infection.
Documents accessed by TOI state that the department has estimated that it will need a total of 2,260 oxygen-equipped beds (high dependency unit beds) for dealing with moderate cases of Covid-19 among the children at the peak of the third wave.
It has been estimated out of the nearly 1.43 crore minors in Jharkhand, as many as 8,610 stand the risk of being infected severely.
The estimation, prepared by the department’s Covid-19 task force, has projected the requirements of the beds for a 60-day period since the onset of the third wave in the state. “Be it in the first wave or the second wave of the infections, it has been observed that Jharkhand has started registering a surge in infections approximately a month after cases peaked in Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi. If the trends are to be trusted, we are standing at the threshold of a third wave,” a senior official of the health department, who was a part of the team involved in third wave management preparations, told TOI.
Most number of ICU beds might be needed in districts like Ranchi (45), Dhanbad (41), East Singhbhum (35), Giridih (37), Bokaro (32) and Palamu (30), the department's estimation states.
While the departmental officials scurried to arrange for oxygen, Remdesivir and other paraphernalia after the second wave, careful planning has gone in for managing the third wave, officials claimed.
As many as 50 paediatric invasive ventilators, 50 bubble CPAP machines with compressors, 50 high flow nasal cannula, 752 oxygen flowmeters, 100 oxygen hood and nebulizers have been dispatched to the districts to bolster their PICU units, the department claimed.
“We are organized and well-prepared to mitigate the third wave of Covid-19. Besides the equipment, each district has been provided with sufficient stocks of drugs for treating the minor patients of Covid-19,” Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh, the state nodal officer for Covid-19 management, said.