Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday made it mandatory for all hospitals treating COVID-19 patients to have help desks to inform family members and relatives about their health condition. These will function round-the-clock.
“Complaints are being received from the relatives of the patients as they are not getting any feedback on their status,” the notification issued by Heath and Family Welfare department said.
This followed the August 28 order in which private hospitals with more than 30 beds were asked to reserve 50 per cent of their general beds and 80 per cent of those in ICU for COVID-19 patients.
To lessen the burden on hospitals, the government is also encouraging home isolation of asymptomatic and patients with mild symptoms.
Odisha now has 38,158 active cases following 721 deaths and 1,49,379 recoveries.
So far, 1,88,311 people in the state have been infected.
