BENGALURU: With Covid-19 cases steadily declining in the city, BBMP is considering suspending operations at some Level 1 triaging centres and redeploying their staffers.
Currently, 33 Level 1 centres and 16 Level 2 ones are functional.
Inspired by Mumbai’s model, they were opened during the peak of the second wave to better manage patients by determining if they require home isolation, hospitalisation or admission to a Covid-19 care facility.
In the past few weeks, the number of symptomatic people visiting the centres has decreased.
For instance, until last month, the one at the Kengeri Upanagara PHC saw about 60 positive cases daily.
It now reports only 10 to 12 cases.
According to a doctor there, staff members are currently underutilised and they could help out at PHCs conducting vaccination sessions.
BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta told TOI that based on the number of Covid-19 cases in respective areas, Level 1 centres would continue to function or be temporarily shut.
The latter is aimed at optimising the use of resources.
But no centre will be permanently closed.
After the surge in April and May, daily coronavirus infections are down by 88 per cent.
On May 5, Bengaluru reported 23,106 new cases, 11,343 recoveries and 161 deaths.
On Friday (June 4), the city recorded 2,686 new cases, 8,852 recoveries and 206 deaths.
The daily positivity rate is down from 39.9 per cent on May 5 to 6 per cent.
Level 1 triaging centres do not operate round the clock; small teams work there in two shifts.
Patients are evaluated and advised on the next course of action.
Level 2 centres, also called physical triaging centres (PTCs), have bigger teams (two doctors, two paramedical staffers, two data-entry operators and support personnel) and more equipment, and are attached to at least one Covid care facility with oxygenated beds.
Twenty-six hospitals across BBMP zones are mapped on a system that PTCs can use to reserve beds for patients.
For a trial, a portal was set up at eight PTCs recently, and it has been working well.
The PTCs examined 936 patients, of which, 678 were advised home isolation, 186 were sent to Covid care facilities and 72 were allocated HDU/ICU beds at hospitals.
BBMP plans to move towards a system where physical triaging will be a prerequisite for all patients seeking hospital admissions.
An optimal number of centres will be made functional across all assembly constituencies and they will be ramped up if Covid cases climb again.