Adequate beds, oxygen supply: Hospitals gear up to tackle Omicron threat in TN

A day after Tamil Nadu reported its first case of Omicron variant on Wednesday, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan inspected a special ward and other facilities for the patients at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in the city on Thursday.

State Health Department officials said that all the district healthcare workers have also been instructed to keep a check on the availability of the beds, oxygen beds, ICUs, ventilators and medications for ensuring adequate infrastructure and facilities for treating COVID-19 patients, in case of any surge in the cases in the State. 

Tamil Nadu Multi-Super Speciality Hospital in Omandurar had also set up a special ward for Omicron cases and more wards are being reviewed to be kept ready if there is an increase in the cases. Earlier, the Health Secy said that the hospitals have also been instructed to review the availability of beds and oxygen beds at the government facilities as many wards were not in use after the decline in Covid cases for the past few weeks. He inspected the facilities and the newly set up Omicron ward for the suspected cases and more facilities will be set up to isolate positive cases of Omicron if the need arises.

The officials with the State drug control department have also taken stock of the medications being used to treat Omicron patients and other cases also. 'There is no specific medication in high demand but we need to make sure that the regular medicines are in adequate availability as a preparatory measure as WHO has indicated high transmissibility of the Omicron variant. We are doing our routine stock check also," said Drug Controller K Sivabalan.