Bengal braces for third wave, ready with over 30K O2 beds

kolkata: Taking all necessary measures, Bengal is ready to deal with the possible third wave of the pandemic as more than 30,000 oxygen beds have been prepared to treat COVID-19 patients, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The government has prepared 30,000 beds with oxygen supply across hospitals in the state, besides 4,800 beds in CCU and HDU facilities, National Health Mission Director, Saumitra Mohan, said during a visit to the Malda Medical College and Hospital.

A trauma centre would be set up at the Malda Medical College and Hospital and a super-specialty facility would soon come up at the Chanchal Hospital, he said. Meanwhile, the percentage of positive cases on Thursday remained 1.66.

Earlier, the state government had asked all district administrations to lay emphasis on the vaccination drive in semi-urban areas, slums along with naka-checking to enforce Covid norms in a better manner and develop paediatric infrastructure in various health establishments to tackle any possible third wave of the pandemic.

The district administrations have also been directed to conduct district-wise analysis of fatalities.

Those districts, where the fatality rate is comparatively higher, were asked to find out the causes behind the high mortality rate. Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi along with Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam had earlier held a preparatory meeting virtually with all the District Magistrates and Chief Medical Officers of Health (CMoHs) in the districts to check the preparedness, in the wake of a possible third wave.

In view of the possible third wave of Covid, the state Health department had also started training nursing personnel, who would be deployed at over 4,300 health centers across Bengal to provide telemedicine based health services. People from the villages can avail specialised treatment from their rural health centers.

Patients requiring any specialised treatment or ordinary ailments can visit the nearby health centers where the nursing staff would facilitate an online treatment for the patients.

They would talk to the specialised doctors and inform them about the problems. The doctors, on the other end, will send prescriptions through Whatsapp. The new facility would immensely help the local health administration to cater to the maximum number of patients amid the pandemic situation, said an official.