After Kerala witnessed a huge spike in the number of COVID-19 positive cases, on Monday the state government has prepared an emergency plan ‘Plan C’ to combat the future possibilities of the COVID19 outbreak.
As per plan C, there will be a total of 3,028 isolation beds will be set up across 122 hospitals in the state. Among the 122 hospitals, 81 of them are government while the remaining 41 are private entities. The work of identifying the hospitals that would be used for Plan C has already been done by the health department. Apart from this, there are 218 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU) that was set up as a part of Plan A and Plan B.
The decision to pursue Plan C came after a family of three from Italy and two of their acquaintances were tested positive for the coronavirus in Pathanamthitta. The State Health Minister, KK Shailaja had earlier said that if people can become cautious and follow strict social distancing, the containment of the disease can be achieved through Plan B alone. She had alarmed that if there is a trace of community transmission, the state will proceed to Plan C and it seems they have.
Kerala’s Preparedness
By the end of January, when three students from Wuhan were tested positive in Kerala, the state government had come forward with two plans – Plan A and Plan B. Plan A included 50 government and 2 private hospitals with a capacity of 974 isolation beds admitting patients for the COVID-19. Plan A was immediately put to effect.
Plan B included 71 government hospitals and 55 private hospitals came forward. The number of isolation beds rose to 1408. While the state is currently in Plan A and since there isn’t a vast number of cases being reported, Plan B has so far not been invoked.
The state has also opened 147 corona care centers that provide shelters to foreigners and people from other districts who have no place to stay while they are under quarantine. According to government data, these centers can accommodate at least 21,866 people at a time.
