Chandigarh, Jul 1 (PTI) The Haryana government on Wednesday stressed on strengthening delivery facilities in both public and private health institutions to ensure safe and uninterrupted services for pregnant women amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Giving details in this regard, an official spokesman said that in non-COVID hospitals, a separate LDR or labour, delivery and recovery room is being provided.

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He along with this, an isolation ward is being provided for delivery and admission of COVID-19 positive pregnant women, in case where it is not possible to send a pregnant woman to a special COVID hospital.

The spokesman said that a comparison of the pre-COVID period (April 2019 to February 2020) and COVID period (March to May 2020) and analysis of delivery data shows that out of the total reported deliveries in Haryana, during the pre-COVID period, 95.8 per cent were institutional deliveries, while during the COVID period, there were 95.4 per cent institutional deliveries.

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Similarly, the percentage of public institutional deliveries was 59.3 per cent in the pre-COVID period and 59.4 per cent during COVID period. Percentage of private institutional deliveries is 40.7 per cent in the pre-COVID period and 40.6 per cent during COVID.

The spokesman also said that entry point screening for pregnant women present in obstetric units and triaging is being done to minimise contact between probable COVID and non-COVID cases.

He said that a list of high-risk pregnancy cases is being made and shared with district control rooms, health care workers and medical officers so that such pregnant women can be sent to hospitals on time. The spokesman said that during the COVID-19 crisis, telemedicine services are being provided to give consultation to the pregnant women or answer any query asked by them regarding the safety of institutional deliveries.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)