Mock drills held across 20,000 hospitals to check Covid preparedness

Over 11,000 oxygen plants are functional and nearly 2.8 lakh isolation beds are available in over 20,000 health facilities across the country, where mock drills were conducted on Tuesday (December 28), to check the operational readiness to deal with COVID amid a surge in cases in some countries, officials said.

The Centre had asked states and Union Territories to conduct the drill as part of precautionary measures following an increase in COVID cases in China and other countries.
According to officials, 20,021 facilities, including 15,424 government ones conducted the exercise across 37 states and UTs.

Of the total 3,37,710 isolation beds across these facilities, 2,79,202 are functional.
Out of the total 2,82,229 oxygen supported-COVID beds, 2,45,894 are operational, they said. Besides, of the 70,073 ICU beds and 57,286 ICU-cum-ventilator beds, 64,711 and 49,236 are functional, respectively.

During the drill, it was found that 88 per cent of the 70,996 ventilators across 20,021 facilities are functional, they said, adding that 93 per cent of 12,656 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants, 94 per cent of 6,63,547 oxygen cylinders and 96 per cent of 2,37,003 oxygen concentrators are functional, official sources said.

Among drugs, these facilities have a stock of 713,785 Remdesivir, 76,581 tocilizumab, 8,41,85,669 doxycyclin, 8,42,90, 682 Azithromycin and 2,46 27,157 dexamethasone, they said. Also, 11,681 basic life support ambulances and 3,723 advanced-life support ambulances are available, they said.

Also read: COVID: Next 40 days crucial as India may see a spike in cases: Govt

Official sources further said 10,515 facilities have tele-medicine services, while there are 9,144 ambulance cell centres, they said.

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said the drill was necessary to know if the hospitals are prepared. Since COVID cases are rising all over the world and India might witness a spike in cases too, he said that it is important that the entire COVID infrastructure in terms of equipment, processes and human resources are in a state of operational readiness. “Clinical readiness at hospitals is crucial,” he stressed.

Cautioning against complacency, he urged everyone to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour.
He also asked people to refrain from sharing unverified information and ensure high level of preparedness.