On Tuesday, as the state added 22 new cases of COVID-19, the dean of the hospital, Dr E Theranirajan, tweeted a picture with his team outside an empty corona ward and expressed his thanks for reaching the happy “milestone”. . “At the peak of infection in May 2021, there were queues of ambulances waiting for oxygen and beds with critically ill patients in the foyer of the hospital. We had patients everywhere. All 450 invasive ventilators were running, and an equal number of non-invasive devices were also being used. We were short of space, staff, oxygen and medicines. We have come a long way since then,” he told TOI. “Weaker mutations, better protocols, mass vaccination and awareness have led to a reduction in cases and hospitalisations,” he said.
Over the past two years, hospital staff quickly leaned toward triage patients – moving them to the ICU, ward or home isolation based on certain clinical parameters and symptoms. Treatment protocols became efficient and mortality declined. Earlier this year, the hospital introduced elective surgery and urged more patients to come to the outpatient ward. On Tuesday, the hospital’s Tower-III block, the special ward for Covid patients, was being used as an outpatient ward even as staff were cleaning beds and cots from the isolation units. The health workers had smiles on their faces. “We hope there is no need to wear PPE this summer,” said one of them, taking out the cot from the ward.
across Tamil Nadu Director of Medical Education Dr R Narayanbabu said that almost all government medical college hospitals and tertiary care centers had no COVID patients. “There are only five suspected cases of Kovid-19, two more in Sivaganga Tuticorin And one in the Nilgiris,” he said. All hospitals have been asked to start other services. “But this time they will be able to recreate the isolation wards as and when required without any hassle,” he said.
As on Tuesday, out of 226 active cases in the state, about 92% were in home isolation. Across the state, 17 patients were in hospitals and four of them were in intensive care units. These patients were either admitted to private hospitals or secondary care government hospitals. All three patients were in Vellore ICUWhile there was a critically ill patient in Chennai.
Meanwhile, eleven out of 38 districts were Covid-free on Tuesday as they did not have any active case of the viral infection. The fresh cases in Chennai came down to nine. After Chennai, Chengalpet reported six new cases, and seven others—one each in Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, Karur, Madurai, Ranipet, Theni and Tiruppur. All others had no new cases.
There were zero deaths in the state and 25 patients were discharged from the state registry.