Better Covid management: Health dept suggests changes

Kolkata: Based on the report submitted by the protocol monitoring team, the state health department has advised some recommendations to the Covid hospitals for better management of the pandemic. The department has written to various Covid hospitals to also address the shortcomings as cited by the monitoring team in its report.

The department has maintained that all its recommendations must be followed strictly while treating Covid patients.

It has also asked the private Covid hospitals across the state to adhere to the protocols. The move comes after the monitoring team — constituted by the department — submitted their report to Swasthya Bhavan citing certain lacunas found in some hospitals.

The experts of the protocol monitoring team had visited the Covid hospitals to inspect the overall arrangements for treatment recently. The health department believes that if the recommendations are properly followed, the overall outcome in management of the pandemic will certainly improve further.

It may be mentioned that the protocol monitoring teams had been formed by the health department to ensure that the hospitals follow the proper guidelines of treatment and also take the precautionary measures to check the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, in the latest advisory, the health department said SARS-CoV2 infection and disease can be approximately divided into three phases — an asymptomatic phase with or without detectable virus, a non-severe symptomatic phase with upper airway involvement and severe potentially lethal disease and hypoxia, 'ground glass' infiltrates in the lungs and progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome with or without high viral load.

The advisory also mentions for most people Covid is a mild disease but some are left struggling with symptoms including lasting fatigue, persistent pain and breathlessness for months, sometimes collectively called 'long Covid'.

Hyperinflammatory states may give rise to long term multi organ dysfunction. Close monitoring of lung function, diabetes, kidney function, cardiological function should be necessary during post Covid follow-up.