Jharkhand Preparing To Combat Possible Third COVID-19 Wave: State health Minister
Jharkhand: The third COVID-19 wave is expected to peak in India between October and November, state health minister Banna Gupta said, adding that the Jharkhand government is making arrangements to contain its spread and mitigate its impact.
Speaking to ANI, Gupta said that while the third wave is expected to affect children more, ventilators have been installed for them across the state.
“We have arranged for a possible third wave of COVID. Ventilators have been installed for children across the state. Around 76 per cent of people live in rural areas, so we cannot ignore them. We can focus on everything We have been and are moving ahead,” said the health minister of Jharkhand.
He said that the state government has engaged the services of experts and procured the latest medical equipment to deal with the possible third wave.
Talking about the preparedness to deal with the next possible wave of pandemics in the state capital, Dr Vinod Kumar, Civil Surgeon, Ranchi informed that Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) wards have been set up at Ranchi Sadar Hospital.
Kumar said, “We have 27 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 24 High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds in the PICU ward. If needed, we’ll utilise the 16-bedded Special Newborn Care Units (SNCU) as NICU ward,” said Kumar.
However, he highlighted the shortage of staff to deal with the possible increase in the number of infections, and said, “We need 11-12 paediatricians, but we have only seven right now. We wrote to the department about this.”
Giving information regarding the arrangements made for adult patients, the Civil Surgeon said, “We have a 50-bed ICU for adults. 250 general beds are also there which can be converted into a COVID ward if required. All beds have pipeline-supported oxygen.”
(With ANI Inputs)
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