State well placed to handle situation, says chief secy

CHANDIGARH : Punjab chief secretary Vini Mahajan on Wednesday said the state is well prepared to handle the current patient load and there was no dearth of facilities for the treatment of Covid patients at any level.

In a statement, she said all necessary arrangements have been ensured at level 2 and 3 facilities. Level- 2 facilities in the state are well prepared to handle the current patient load with more than 60% beds lying vacant in the four worst Covid-hit districts — Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar.

She said Punjab government has partnered with the private healthcare sector to ensure greater coverage and better utilisation of the available resources.

The chief secretary said at Level 3 facilities in these four districts, cumulatively more than 40% beds are currently unoccupied. Though the occupancy of hospital/icu beds by critically ill patients is increasing, the situation is far from being as grave as mentioned in some news reports, she said.

She said it is possible that some individual centres may report full occupancy at times, but there is a strong mechanism in place at the district level to ensure that patients are referred immediately to another centre.