Ranchi: The preparation against the anticipated third wave of Covid-19 has been paced up across Jharkhand. Doctors, health specialists and scientists have anticipated that the third wave may largely impact children. In such a situation, the government has paced up the speed of preparation. PICU i.e., Paediatric Intensive Care Units are being established across all the districts of Jharkhand. Chief Minister Mr Hemant Soren is personally monitoring every development and supervising the directing officials to establish child-friendly ICU beds in the government hospitals at the earliest.

All the districts are working on a war footing and PICUs are being developed in all the Sadar Hospitals and few CHCs across the state.

The Chief Minister has directed all the officials to equip child wards in government hospitals with modern medical equipment. This way, the infected patients in rural areas will be able to access the best possible treatment, free of cost in their locality. Apart from general child wards, dedicated child wards are being developed across all the districts of Jharkhand. These wards are equipped with infant ventilators, paediatric ventilators, Bubble CPAP, Radiant warmers, Oxygen supply facility and other necessary facilities.

The PICU wards are being painted with different kinds of child-friendly paintings. . The curtains, bed sheets and covers used in PICU wards are colourful and attractive to create a comfortable environment for children. Walls have been painted with illustrations of cartoon characters. Apart from this, to create a stress-free environment for children, television sets are being installed, a dedicated play area is being created in the courtyard and galleries of wards. Bookshelves are also being installed to keep multiple storybooks and other learning materials.
After the directions from the Chief Minister, every district administration started working on the development of a dedicated child ward.Ma ny districts have already completed the development of at least one such facility and are in the process of developing other units in rural parts of the state. Districts like Koderma, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Gumla, Latehar, Giridih have already completed the work related to PICUs.
In Ranchi, the development of a 27 bed PICU ward has been completed, and work is in progress for at least 40 more PICU beds. In the East Singhbhum district, work for the development of 30 PICU beds is in progress. A 20 bed PICU facility has been completed in the Koderma district. Giridih and Hazaribag districts are developing 130-bed child ward facilities across different CHCs and Sadar Hospital of the district. The work for a 70 PICU bed facility is near completion in Dhanbad and Khunti districts.
Hemant Soren, Chief Minister said Our government will not leave any stone unturned to create the best possible health infrastructure for our people and children. The third wave is anticipated but the government is preparing itself in advance to fight against the new wave. The second wave was a lesson for us; it helped us find the loopholes in our health facilities. But, this time we are preparing ourselves in advance. Officials have been directed to work out everything and roll out the plan in place. I am keeping a close eye on every development. We are trying our best to develop such a medical infrastructure across the state which will be witnessed for the first time in Jharkhand’’

SANJAY PANDEY