Battalion of medics battle against Covid-19 at Haryana control room

In stark contrast to the general hospital campus in Panchkula — which has been wearing a deserted look since the clamping of nationwide lockdown — is the situation at Haryana’s control room for Covid-19.

Adjacent to the office of director general, health services, the centre witnesses intense action day in and day out in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Armed with computers and cell phones, about a dozen doctors and other staff members stay in constant touch with the health workforces of all 22 districts of the state, noting down every detail pertaining to the arrival of Covid-19 suspected as well as positive cases, their samples and results.

They also focus on the contact tracing of the suspected and confirmed Covid-19 cases, following the same protocol.

Though all senior officials are actively involved at the district as well as state level, the control room’s dedicated team has in it senior-most to junior doctors of the integrated diseases surveillance programme (IDSP) wing, which collects all types of Covid-19 related information.

It also passes on the government’s instructions to the district teams on real-time basis, besides keeping tabs on each case, say doctors of IDSP, which is headed by Dr Usha Gupta.

Director general, health services, Dr SB Kamboj says an adequate number of Isolation beds have identified in various government and private facilities besides persons quarantine facilities in rooms and dormitories. According to official information, 11 full or partial covid hospitals and medical colleges including one at Nalhar (Nuh), Mullana (Ambala) and Agroha (Hisar), besides exclusive covid wards in 26 other government and private hospitals and medical colleges in the state.

Likewise, top officials say there is an adequate stock of essential protective equipment, including 3-ply masks, hand sanitisers, hydroxychloroquine 200mg tablets, N95 masks, PPE kits and VTM media available in hospitals and medical colleges to effectively combat the novel coronavirus. Also, besides three private labs in Gurugram, five government labs, one each at PGIMS, Rohtak (capacity of testing 120 samples per day) and BPS Khanpur Kalan (80 samples per day), ESIC Medical College, Faridabad (80 samples per day), Kalpana Chawla Medical College, Karnal (80 samples per day) and NRCE Hisar (25 samples per day) are for testing samples for the infection.

About his teams, health minister Anil Vij says not only the top officials, even doctors from all faculties were working with dedication. Their efforts were even lauded in the cabinet meeting a few days ago, he adds.