Chess Olympiad players to get medical cover
The Hindu
The Tamil Nadu Health Department will deploy medical teams and ambulances, and take up COVID-19 screening at airports, hotels and venues, besides providing health insurance cover of up to ₹2 lakh each for 1,900-odd players participating in the 44th Chess Olympiad
With the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad all set to begin next week, the Health department is deploying medical teams and ambulances, arranging COVID-19 screening at airports, hotels and venues, monitoring food safety and has readied health insurance cover of up to ₹2 lakh to each of the 1,900-odd players.
Players from about 180 countries are taking part in the Chess Olympiad scheduled to take off on July 28. On its part, the Health department is ramping up preparations, including emergency care, COVID-19 screening and food safety.
Officials said nearly 1,000 persons, including doctors and field workers of the department, were roped in after appropriate training. Thirty ambulances would be stationed at the hotels where players would be accommodated.
“The players will be staying in 21 hotels. So, we have one permanent medical team for every three hotels. They will be available round-the-clock. At the main venue, we will have specialist doctors available in case of any emergency,” a health official said.
The special medical team comprising doctors drawn from general medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, orthopaedics and obstetrics-gynaecology would be in place at the Chess Olympiad venue in Mamallapuram.
If any player required to be admitted to hospital, the State government would bear the medical expenses for which health insurance coverage has been readied.
“We have paid a premium of ₹300 for each player through the already existing Memorandum of Understanding with United India Insurance (for the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme). We have a list of 1,925 players who are participating in the Olympiad. This will give coverage of up to ₹2 lakh per player for 15 days in empanelled private hospitals,” another official said.