Maharashtra: Covid mock drills conducted at about 1,300 health facilities

Mock drills to assess preparedness for treating COVID-19 cases were conducted at about 1,300 health facilities in Maharashtra on Tuesday in view of a spurt in cases in China and some other countries, the state health department said here.

Drills were carried out at 610 government hospitals, 628 private hospitals, 28 government medical colleges and 27 private medical colleges as of 5 pm, said an official statement.

Last week, the Union government had directed all the states to conduct such exercises to ensure preparedness of hospitals in the wake of rise in COVID-19 cases in China, Brazil, South Korea and USA, among others. "A review of available hospital beds, ICU facilities, equipment, oxygen system, medicine stocks, human resources and their training and telemedicine facility was taken," the release stated.

A doctor at the government-run J J Hospital in Mumbai said they checked the preparedness of their COVID-19 wards, medicine stocks, X-ray machinery and oxygen supply units. A doctor at the civic-run Seven Hills Hospital said they checked everything "right from the process of admission of patients, shifting them to the Intensive Care Unit, following the ICU processes, and checking whether they had taken single, double or booster doses of vaccine." Among COVID-19 treatment facilities in Mumbai, Seven Hills Hospital has 1,700 beds, Kasturba Hospital 35 beds, government-run Cama Hospital 100 beds, St George Hospital 70 beds, Tata Hospital 16 beds and Jagjivan Ram Hospital 12 beds.