Chennai’s Covid Warrior

By G.C. Shekhar | INDIA  |

The state’s capital was reporting 7,000 Covid cases a day taking a heavy toll on ambulances, hospital beds and the medical staff and Stalin needed an officer with a track record of tackling disasters with a hands-on approach and with innovative ways to check the spiraling case load.

Stalin handpicked Bedi (53) to head Chennai Corporation though this 1993 batch IAS officer was heading the Agricultural Department as its Principal Secretary and the job of Commissioner of Chennai Corporation was usually given to a mid-level officer. But the new Government was counting on Bedi’s 26 years of experience, especially the years when he led from the front during natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami, 2005 Cuddalore floods, four cyclones and the 2015 Cuddalore floods again.

Bedi plunged headlong into the job, sounding out his officials for fresh ideas. He quickly put together a Chennai model for community driven prevention and case management. One of the key interventions was to send Fever Survey Workers (FSW) to doorsteps and follow it up with testing for those with high temperatures. Similarly fever camps were organized in hotspot streets to ensure that no one with the mildest symptoms was left uncovered. “Within the first week we had recruited 12,000 FSWs each of whom covered 100-150 houses and mobilized symptomatic individuals to fever camps for RT-PCR testing,” pointed out Bedi.

The GCC also directed all labs to report Covid test results only to its zonal teams to ensure immediate triaging and case management. The results of the tests would be conveyed by 300 trained volunteers who will also explain the importance of triaging to patients so that there is no headlong rush to hospitals. The GCC also established 21 triage centres in Chennai to identify severe cases especially among the elderly with comorbidities.

“When the shortage of ambulances was flagged Bedi asked why not equip cabs with small oxygen cylinders. After all the journey was needed only till a hospital in the city. And when the wait outside hospitals became interminable he came up with the idea of “Oxygen Centres” at the Corporation health centres which would act as holding centres till hospital beds became available,” pointed out an official of Chennai Corporation. In the reverse direction these Oxygen Centres became step down centres for patients with minimum O2 requirement once discharged from hospitals.

Read the full story entitled ‘Covid Warrior: How This IAS Officer Turned The Tide In Chennai’ (Outlook, 19 June 2021), here.