MillenniumPost
Bengal

Ambulances for Covid patients: No failures reported in last 3 months

KOLKATA: Despite the sudden spike in Covid cases, the Bengal government has been successful in providing free of cost ambulance services to every caller, who dialed the state's dedicated helpline number to seek help for transporting Covid patients in the past three months.

Though it had failed to provide the service to all last year, not a single case of failure had been reported since January 28.

Ambulances were pressed into service for Covid patients after receiving calls on the helpline number 033 4090 2929. According to a state government officer, necessary guidance and support was also provided to people who dialed 1800 313 444 222 for seeking the service.

At a time when 8,000 cases were getting reported in a day, 475 calls were received on April 19 for ambulance service. On April 13, the requests for ambulance service shot up to 196 from 98 during the previous day.

The requests increased to 399 on April 18 and crossed the 400-mark to reach 475 on April 19. "The requirements were well-fulfilled on all the days and even on April 13 when the requirement doubled," the official added.

"Around 400 ambulances have been deployed to provide free of cost service to Covid patients and doctors are attending patients through telemedicine facility," outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said earlier, while holding a press conference at Malda.

Last year, the total number of Covid cases recorded on September 22 was 3,182 and calls received for ambulance service was 498. But, about 18 callers were not provided with the service for various reasons. Similarly, at least two to three callers did not get the service in August, September, October, November and December.

Sources said steps were taken to ensure the service to all callers after failures came to the notice of officials.

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