Assam extends curfew hours
In what has taken many by surprise, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Guwahati Medical College and Hospital at about 2.30 am on Sunday to take stock of the Covid situation.
Informing that the state will start an ‘odd-hour management’ process in government medical colleges and other hospitals, Mr Sarma told reporters, “I visited GMCH at about 2.30 am to ensure the presence of senior doctors at odd hours. There were reports of some patients coming to hospital at odd hours and after two three hours patients died.”
He however expressed satisfaction over the arrangement of the hospital even in odd hours. “I was satisfied with the arrangements. I reiterate my gratitude to doctors and nursing staff for their help,” he said.
He said, “We have already discussed oddhour management where senior doctors have to do duty from 11 pm to 7 am. We have seen that maximum patients died during the night. Some of them came at night time in hospital and after two to three hours the patient died.”
Pointing out that most senior doctors do duty during the day shift, Mr sarma said, “Now they have to do duty during the night also. CCTV cameras have been fixed in every ward and we will monitor everything.”
Mr Sarma who also entered the CCTV control room to take the stock of doctors and nursing staff's activities said, “We have an adequate amount of oxygen cylinders till now. No bed scarcity at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) but we will increase bed capacity and the process has been started at Sarusajai sports complex.”
Meanwhile, the government has extended curfew timings in the state from 2 pm to 12 noon.
“We have noticed that Covid positive cases decreased from 1,600 to 1,000 in Guwahati after extending curfew timings. So, we have decided to extend curfew timings from 2 pm to 12 pm. We will monitor the positivity rate during one week,” said the chief minister who is said to have been keeping a round the clock watch over the Covid scenario.
Even problems pointed out on social media are taken care off by the chief minister himself. The pro-active approach of the new chief minister has alerted the police as well as civil administration which are now keeping a close watch on social media and media reports.