RGGGH has no COVID-19 patient for first time since start of pandemic

The last patient was discharged on Monday evening

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the COVID-19 wards at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) turned empty on Tuesday. The last patient, who was admitted to ward 54, was discharged on Monday evening.

Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said in a press release that the hospital reached a situation wherein there were no COVID-19 in-patients after two years. It was at the RGGGH that the first COVID-19 patient was admitted on March 7, 2020, when a 10-bed ward was set up.

E. Theranirajan, Dean, RGGGH, said that since then, the hospital had gradually increased the number of beds to 450, 610, 860 and 1,662. Finally, the bed strength was expanded to 2,050 during the second wave of infections, and 450 of them were earmarked for intensive care.

“One or two patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted to ward 54. The last patient was discharged on Monday. At present, we are maintaining a COVID-19 ward on the first floor of Tower 3. There are about 250 beds that have not been dismantled. As Tower 3 is an Out Patient Department (OPD) block, we have started a medicine OPD as of now,” he said.

The hospital has so far managed 64,083 patients with COVID-19, registering a recovery of 95.6%. “The maximum number of in-patients that we saw was 2,090 in May 2021 when we had the second wave. We had to put in additional beds to manage the situation. In the third wave, the maximum number of in-patients was 304,” he said.

The challenges were plenty, he said. “The oxygen demand was one of the main challenges. The second wave and the subsequent complications in the form of mucormycosis were challenging. We saw persons aged over 90 going home after treatment and unexpected deaths among the young.”

“We put in place a multi-disciplinary approach and a uniform protocol for managing patients. Only moderate and severe patients were admitted, while those with mild symptoms were admitted to COVID-19 Care Centres. We launched ambulance triage, a zero delay ward, post-COVID clinics and a mucormycosis clinic,” he added.