Chess Olympiad players to get medical cover
The Tamil Nadu Health Department will deploy medical teams and ambulances, and take up COVID-19 screening at airports, hotels and venues, besides providing health insurance cover of up to ₹2 lakh each for 1,900-odd players participating in the 44th Chess Olympiad
With the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad all set to begin next week, the Health department is deploying medical teams and ambulances, arranging COVID-19 screening at airports, hotels and venues, monitoring food safety and has readied health insurance cover of up to ₹2 lakh to each of the 1,900-odd players.
Players from about 180 countries are taking part in the Chess Olympiad scheduled to take off on July 28. On its part, the Health department is ramping up preparations, including emergency care, COVID-19 screening and food safety.
Officials said nearly 1,000 persons, including doctors and field workers of the department, were roped in after appropriate training. Thirty ambulances would be stationed at the hotels where players would be accommodated.
“The players will be staying in 21 hotels. So, we have one permanent medical team for every three hotels. They will be available round-the-clock. At the main venue, we will have specialist doctors available in case of any emergency,” a health official said.
The special medical team comprising doctors drawn from general medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, orthopaedics and obstetrics-gynaecology would be in place at the Chess Olympiad venue in Mamallapuram.
Insurance cover
If any player required to be admitted to hospital, the State government would bear the medical expenses for which health insurance coverage has been readied.
“We have paid a premium of ₹300 for each player through the already existing Memorandum of Understanding with United India Insurance (for the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme). We have a list of 1,925 players who are participating in the Olympiad. This will give coverage of up to ₹2 lakh per player for 15 days in empanelled private hospitals,” another official said.
The department has identified 13 hospitals in and around OMR and ECR.
Food safety is one of the priority areas. “Measures kicked in two to three months ago when we started training in food safety for staff in the hospitality industry. We identified hotels and took up three or four rounds of inspections based on which improvements had to be done by them. There are a number of street vendors and small restaurants as well, and a number of restaurants on the beach side in Mamallapuram and its surrounding areas. So, we provided special training on how to prepare food hygienically,” an official said.
Nearly 100 persons were deputed from other districts to monitor food safety measures in all hotels, the official said.
COVID-19 screening
On its part, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine will take care of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and RT-PCR testing in addition to monkeypox guidelines.
Officials said testing would be done as per the Indian Council of Medical Research guidelines. Two per cent of total flight passengers, including players, coaches, support staff and visitors, would undergo post-arrival testing at random on arrival at the airport. All of them should have taken two doses of COVID-19 vaccine and should produce vaccination certificate or RTPCR negative certificate taken within 72 hours before boarding the flight, said a communication from the directorate.
Thermal screening would be in place. All of them would be screened for symptoms daily and if found symptomatic, the candidate would be isolated, tested and treated as per protocol.
Apart from these measures, a health control room has been set up to coordinate the work.
Source: Today The Hindu
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