Kolkata: The state Finance department on Wednesday issued an order to include COVID-19 ailments in the list of outpatient departments (OPDs) under West Bengal Health scheme.
The decision has been taken by the state government after considering the gravity of Covid.
The West Bengal Health Scheme Authority (WBHSA) has agreed to include Covid as the 17th disease/illness in the OPD list.
Now, all the cost of OPD treatment will be reimbursable as per the norms of the WBHSA if reports come positive through RT-PCR, TRUNAT/CBNAAT methods. If report comes negative, no other changes except the cost of Covid test is reimbursable.
It may also be mentioned here that with the number of daily Covid infected cases consistently going below 500, non-Covid treatment in both the government and private health sector are almost coming back to normalcy.
According to Health department figure, only 639 patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals as on Wednesday. Around 157 patients are currently in Safe Homes while around 8,895 patients are still in home isolation.
Occupancy in Covid beds in Bengal has gone down below 1 per cent ever since the pandemic broke out. On Wednesday, the state registered the occupancy in Covid beds at 0.88 per cent.
In the beginning of January this year, the occupancy remained at around 5 per cent By the end of January, the occupancy dropped to around 3.5 per cent.State on Wednesday saw 439 new cases while on Tuesday the figure stood at 348.
The number of daily fatalities on Wednesday dropped to 18 from what stood at 21 on Tuesday. The figure remained at 23 on Monday, 27 on Sunday and 25 on Saturday.
Single-day cases in Kolkata dropped to 58 on Wednesday from what stood at 71 on Tuesday. The figure stood at 34 on Monday. Around 95 new cases have been registered in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday from what stood at 46 on Tuesday.
The total number of infected cases so far in the North 24-Parganas has gone up to 4,02,511. Out of this, around 3,95,720 have already been released. North 24-Parganas has seen 3 Covid deaths on Wednesday while Kolkata has seen 1 death. Kolkata has so far seen a total 4,46,548 Covid infected cases.
As many as 4,39,386 patients from Kolkata have already been released from the hospitals. The number of fatalities in the city so far reached 5,624.The total number of infected cases reached 20,12,008 in Bengal so far. Out of this, around 19,81,238 patients have been released from the hospitals after recovery.