Ranchi: As experts have warned that the third wave of COVID-19 is inevitable, Chief Medical Officer in Jharkhand on Monday said that the state is prepared with all the medical infrastructure to contain the pandemic.
Dr Vinod Kumar, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Ranchi stated that “The state has created new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) wards. We have 27 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and 24 high dependency units (HDU) beds in the PICU ward. If needed, we will utilise the 16-bedded Special Newborn Care Units (SNCU) as NICU ward.”
CMO further informed that “We have a 50-bed ICU for adults. 250 general beds are also there which can be converted into the COVID-19 ward if required. All beds have pipeline-supported oxygen. We need 11-12 paediatricians but we only have seven now. We have written to the department regarding this.”
Briefing the media, the state health minister, Banna Gupta had said, “We have made arrangements for the anticipated third wave of COVID-19. Ventilators have been set up for the children. Around 76 per cent of people live in rural areas, so we can not neglect them. We are focusing on all things and moving forward.”
The state government has acquired experts and procured the latest medical equipment to combat the potential third wave.
