Jamshedpur/Ranchi: Prominent Covid-19 hospitals in Jharkhand are a divided lot over the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) advisory on withdrawing plasma therapy.
While Jamshedpur-based Tata Main Hospital (TMH) stopped providing patients with the therapy from Tuesday, Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) has sought an opinion for its expert committee to plan its future course of action.
“Adhering to the ICMR advisory, issued on Monday late evening, we have stopped providing plasma therapy to Covid-19 patients admitted in our hospital from today (Tuesday),” Dr Rajan Chaudhary, advisor (medical services) to TMH, told TOI.
The ICMR had recommended scrapping of plasma therapy from the current treatment protocol of Covid-19 patients stating that it has no significant benefits on the treatment. TMH is the largest hospital treating Covid-19 patients in East Singhbhum and the entire Kolhan division.
Ranchi: In a first in Jharkhand, Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) made operational a Covid-19 ward with 327 oxygen supported beds at its newly built multi-level parking facility on the campus. Another ward with of 128 oxygen beds was inaugurated at the Rims’ old building and a 73-bed Covid ICU facility was commissioned at the hospital’s oncology wing. The three new facilities became functional on Thursday.
“I had an opportunity to visit these facilities while they were being built. The Rims management and the agencies concerned have done a great job. To set up such facilities within 12-15 days is no mean feat,” chief minister Hemant Soren said after virtually inaugurating the facilities from his home in Kanke Road. The parking lot was inaugurated in late 2019, but was lying unused.
Ranchi: As many as 207 patients have succumbed to the Covid-19 virus in the first fortnight of April alone. Of them, 134 deaths have been reported between April 11 and April 14, making it the deadliest spell of the pandemic so far in Jharkhand. Between February 17 and March 31, the number of fatalities stood at 40 in cumulative.
If public health experts and doctors treating the Covid 19 patients are to be believed, the death toll is expected to register a steep growth in the coming weeks.
Dr Nishith Kumar of Ranchi’s Orchid Hospital, who has been treating Covid-19 patients since the outbreak of the pandemic, said the presence of mutated strains of the Covid-19 virus in Jharkhand is a major contributor to the rising deaths in the state.
Gumla: Former minister of erstwhile undivided Bihar and ex-MLA from Simdega Niel Tirkey died on Wednesday at Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sc.
Fire-cracker like explosions on Kshipra has scared residents
HAZARIBAG: The death toll due to the blasts caused by adulterated kerosene in Hazaribag district mounted to five on Tuesday late night after Urmila Devi (45), resident of Sekha village under Amnari panchayat, succumbed to her burn injuries at Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims).
Hazaribag deputy commissioner Aditya Kumar Anand said, “Urmila worked at a hotel in Hazaribag after her husband died a few years ago in an accident. She is survived by her four children. Urmila had collected her quota of kerosene and on March 1, when she lit the stove, the oil exploded.”