new delhi the union health ministry on sunday laid down the standard operating procedure sop for medical staff attending to or transporting a suspected or confirmed case of covid19it said the sop is meant to guide and train ambulance drivers and technicians in transporting covid19 patientsideally there should be ambulances identified specifically for transporting covid suspect patients or those who have developed complications to the health facilities according to the sopcurrently there are two types of ambulances als with ventilators and bls without ventilators states may empanel other ambulances having basic equipment like that of bls and use it for covid patients the health ministry saidit warned against use of the 102 ambulances for coronavirus patients and said they should only be used to transport pregnant women and sick infantsthe emergency medical technician emt driver of ambulance must wear personal protective equipment ppe when handling managing and transporting identified and suspected cases of covid19the patient and the attendant should be provided with triplelayer mask and gloves the sop saidthe ministry also provided a sample questionnaire to identify covid19 cases in its sop