With the reports of local transmission of the novel coronavirus increasing across the world, the government is focussing more on measures to be implemented effectively.
According to the latest reports from WHO, there has been a total of 12,14,466 confirmed cases and 67,767 deaths due to COVID-19 worldwide and India has 4421 confirmed cases and 114 deaths reported.
Government brings a criteria
In the recent release of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the Directorate General of Health Services points on the appropriate management of the COVID patients, considering the state of their health.
Giving more consideration to the moderate and serious patients will help in maintaining optimal utilization of available resources and thereby providing appropriate care to all the COVID-19 patients. The SOPs specified by the government also specifies different types of facilities to be set up for various categories of COVID-19 cases.
Classification on the severity of symptoms
In India, nearly 70% of the cases affected by COVID-19 either exhibit mild or very mild symptoms. Such cases can be treated well with measures like self-isolation in a room and may not require admission to COVID-19 blocks/ dedicated COVID-19 hospitals.
The recent release proposes three types of COVID Dedicated facilities. This reinstates the need for all possible ways of isolation of suspected and confirmed cases from the general public.
- COVID Care Center (CCC)
- Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC)
- Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH)
The CCC shall offer care only for cases that have been clinically assigned as mild or very mild cases or COVID suspect cases. While the DCHD are hospitals that shall offer care for all cases that have been clinically assigned as moderate; the DCH offers comprehensive care primarily for those who have been clinically assigned as severe.
On the other hand, the categorisation of patients will be as:
- Group 1: Suspect and confirmed cases clinically assigned as mild and very mild (in CCC)
- Group 2: Suspect and confirmed cases clinically assigned as moderate (in DCHD)
- Group 3: Suspect and confirmed cases clinically assigned as severe (in DCH)
Patients with influenza-like illness make the first category, while those with pneumonia symptoms in the second. In Group 3, cases of severe pneumonia or ARDS or septic shock are included.
