OUR CORRESPONDENT
TEZPUR: Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Keshab Mahanta visited Tezpur Medical College and Hospital (TMCH) and reviewed the management of COVID-19 situation in Sonitpur district and facilities available at TMCH and other hospitals of the district at a meeting held at the conference hall of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital. He was accompanied by Director, Medical Education, Dr. Anup Barman and Deputy Secretary, Health, Mukut Phukan.
MLA Sootea Padma Hazarika, MLA Borsola Ganesh Limboo, MLA Tezpur Prithiraj Rabha, MLA Rangapara Krishna Kamal Tanti, Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh, Joint Director, Health Services, Dr J Ahmed, Principal-cum-Chief Superintendent, Dr Karuna Hazarika and other senior officials of district and police administration, health department and TMCH were present in meeting.
At the very outset, Principal, TMCH, Dr Karuna Hazarika gave a detailed presentation about the facilities available at the hospital for treatment of COVID patients and general overview after which Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh gave a presentation of the preparedness by the district administration to manage the COVID patients.
The Health Minister visited the newly-constructed isolation ward at TMCH along with all officials and gave instructions to make it functional at the earliest. After taking detailed stock of the COVID-19 management in the district, the minister stressed carrying out intensive awareness drive on the preventive measures against COVID-19 and directed the health department officials to increase the number of daily tests and assured of taking necessary measures for providing adequate RAT kits to the district. The minister also stressed intensifying the vaccination drive in the district covering more numbers of people as soon as possible.
Minister Keshab Mahanta directed TMCH officials to increase the number of isolation beds from the current 210 to 500 and doubling the number of ICU beds from the current 20 to 40 within the next few days. He also directed Deputy Commissioner and health department officials to increase the number of beds and create additional COVID Care Centres and isolation centres where necessary. He also directed Additional SP Amar Choudhury to intensify drives against persons not following COVID protocol and keep special vigilance on containment zones.
Laying special focus on tea garden areas, he directed health department officials to follow the latest SOP issued for management of COVID cases in tea garden areas and carry out awareness drives in these areas so that the functioning of the gardens was not affected and suggested creating separate isolation centres for tea garden workers in order to curb the spread of the disease.
The minister stressed regular sanitization in the district and directed PHE officials to work with F&ES and sanitize places of mass crowding such as haats/ bazaars. He directed the health department officials to carry out intensive fever surveillance in interior places of the district though ASHA workers so that cases might be detected at the earliest and timely treatment provided to the affected.