Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra held a high level meeting with senior officials and health experts and held discussions over the rising cases of COVID-19 in the State. Mahapatra reviewed preparedness in health facilities across the State for facing a possible third wave.
The Chief Secretary directed private hospitals to join hands and keep the facilities prepared for the Covid third wave scenario. He directed the private and government hospitals to complete the preparations within seven days and be ready for admitting a treating patients in the wake of third wave of Covid-19.
The meeting was attended by Collectors, Municipal Commissioners, and authorities of Government and private hospitals, along with Secretaries of various departments. Mahapatra asked hospitals to keep beds, ICUs, ambulances etc prepared to shift and admit Covid patients on priority with adequate trained manpower.
The district officials were directed to make the rapid response teams, call centres, ambulances and other necessary infrastructure functional to tackle with the possible third wave situation.
It was decided that Dedicated Covid hospitals will function at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Angul, Talcher, Puri, Ganjam, Sambalpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Sundergarh, Baripada, Bolangir, Kandhamal, Rourkela, Gajapati and other important places across the State. Apart from this, all Government hospitals will be kept ready for treating Covid positive patients.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) RK Sharma said, total 55 dedicated Covid hospitals were functioning during the second wave of the pandemic in 2021 along with other facilities where 94,000 beds were operational. Similarly, 3,500 ICU and HDU beds and 1,102 ventilators were functional during the period.
Mahapatra emphasized on sincere, sympathetic and best services to the people in face of the pandemic, reports stated. Development Commissioner PK Jena, Public Health Director Dr Niranjan Mishra, along with other senior officials attended the meeting.
