The Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan today visited Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital to review status of COVID-19 management. Keeping in view the emerging requirements for hospital preparedness, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital is functioning as dedicated 450-bedded COVID-19 hospital consisting of adequate isolation wards and beds.

The Union Minister visited the flu corner, isolation wards, observation wards, critical areas/ICUs, COVID corridor, COVID Area, COVID OPD, COVID sample collection unit, changing facility for doctors and health workers. He was satisfied to notice that the doctors and health staff manning these wards are provided special bathing, changing and spray facility for disinfecting themselves at RMO hostel. The facility for boarding and lodging are provided to the health workers in few hotels nearby to avoid the issues of transportation and prevent the exposure to their families. At the COVID ward, the Minister spoke through video conferencing to a patient who was doctor himself and was admitted at the facility after turning COVID positive while giving his services at Airport for screening COVID patients and at Narela Quarantine. The Minister said “I am happy to learn that he is hale and hearty and recuperating well at the hospital. It is very encouraging to see his high moral despite suffering from COVID himself.”

After a detailed review and inspection of the various wards and premises of the Hospital, he expressed satisfaction at the working of the various unit. He stated: “In last few days, I have been visiting various hospitals AIIMS (Delhi), LNJP, RML, Safdarjung, AIIMS Jhajjar and now Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty to review the preparedness of COVID-19 and I am satisfied with the arrangements made by these hospitals to deal effectively with the pandemic”.

Commending the frontline caregivers such as nurses, doctors and other healthcare personnel for the resilience, hard work, dedication and commitment shown by them in dealing with COVID-19, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “The recovery rate of COVID-19 patients has steadily increased from 8% in the week ending March 29^th to 12% in this week. This shows that more and more of these patients are getting better and going back to their homes. It reflects the quality of care provided by our frontline health workers in India. I congratulate them for this success. The country is grateful to you for your services in such times. It is heartening to see the high morale of our health warriors in these testing times.”

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also stated that the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 in the country is being monitored regularlyat highest levels in collaboration with the States. He said, “The rate of growth of new cases has also been steadying for a while. Before the lockdown, India’s doubling rate was about 3 days. As per the data received today by 8 AM, over the past seven days, the doubling rate is 7.2 days, for the past 14 days it is 6.2, and over past 3 days it stands at 9.7. This is despite the fact that number of tests done every day has increased by almost 14 times.Same way, if you look at growth factor – from 15^th March to 31^st, it was 2.1, whereas in April it has come down to 1.2 which is a good drop of 40% which is a positive indication and is really encouraging for the whole country. This also indicates that the total number of COVID-19 cases are not increasing and may start stabilising.”

Dr Harsh Vardhan urged the people of India to observe the extended period of lockdown (till May 03, 2020) in letter and spirit and treat it as an effective intervention to cut down the chain of transmission of COVID-19. He said by observing discipline in day to day life during Lockdown 2.0 would reap us rich dividends in terms of turning the tide against COVID-19. “We have won the battles and we will win this war against COVID-19 for sure”.

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MV/MR