Assam Prepared, No Need to Panic for ICU Beds, Remdesivir and Oxygen: State Health Minister Himanta Biswa

GUWAHATI: Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday assured that the state is in a comfortable situation at least for the next 10 days as far as beds, ICU beds, Remdesivir, and oxygen availability are concerned.

Listing out the availability of beds in government hospitals across Guwahati, the minister said, "Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has 420 beds with 92 ICU beds, Kalapahar Govt Hospital – 38 ICU Beds, Mahindra Mohan Choudhary Hospital (MMCH) – 24 ICU beds."

"All together Guwahati has a total of 150 ICU beds in its govt hospitals and currently 92 Covid patients are in ICU beds in govt hospitals," he added.

Speaking about the Remdesivir injections the minister said that currently, the state has a stock of 25,000 injections.

Further, the minister added that nursing homes cannot charge more than Rs 1400 + taxes (Rs 1568) for Remdesivir injections bought from GMCH.

"Assam can vaccinate 3,500 Covid patients with Remdesivir right now", Sarma said

Meanwhile, Assam has a surplus of 40 MT of oxygen. The state has 61MT of oxygen supply and currently using around 20 MT.

It is to be mentioned here that Assam has 8 government-owned oxygen plants and 4 private sector plants- which are - Oxygen plants in Bongaigaon, Dimapur, Bhutan, and Meghalaya. Further, 3 more would be added by April end which will be in-house at private hospitals. Read more

Assam has 460MT storage capacity, 30 oxygen tankers, and enough facilities to transport up to 200 MT oxygen from outside the state.

Further, the Final year medical exams have been preponed and to begin from May 8 while the third-year nursing exams also preponed. This would help take care of the manpower issue in the hospitals.

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