Chennai, May 4 (IANS): Arappor Iyakkam, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Tuesday urged the Tamil Nadu government to automate the Covid-19 bed status updates and ensure data accuracy.

In a letter to the government, the NGO said: "We need to look at automating bed status updates at both government as well as private hospitals to ensure data accuracy."

"The Hospital Management Information Software (HMIS) needs to be implemented immediately and effectively to enable live-tracking to help people in search of Covid beds," it added.

Referring to the recent government notice asking the private hospitals to reserve 50 per cent of their total bed strength for Covid-19 patients, the NGO said that not even 50 per cent of about 1,200 private hospitals have enrolled themselves in the state government's 'stopcorona' portal.

"We see only 564 hospitals' bed details updated in the website so far," Arappor Iyakkam said.

The NGO urged the government to immediately augment ventilators and oxygen beds in the government hospitals since the number of Covid patients is increasing everyday.