BBMP has designated its maternity hospital in Wilson Garden as an exclusive treatment centre for pregnant women testing positive or suspected of the infection.
BBMP chief health officer Dr Nirmala Buggi issued an order, stating that many pregnant women seeking health care at BBMP hospitals — either as outpatient or inpatient — report as Covid positive at some stage. This forces the hospitals to close temporarily for sanitisation before the services resume.
As per the guidelines, throat swabs are collected from all pregnant women 15 days before their expected date of delivery. Due to practical difficulties, the swab collection is either done late or the reports take time to arrive. This results in the women getting admitted to the labour wards before their Covid status is known.
Though such cases are being managed at the BBMP referral hospitals and maternity homes, there is a need to designate a hospital exclusively for Covid positive women for better compliance to the guidelines and to avoid simultaneous closure of hospitals for sanitisation, Dr Nirmala said.
The 24-bed Wilson Garden maternity hospital also has an operation theatre.