kanyakumari the kanyakumari government medical college hospital asaripallam has been awarded as the top performer in the state for its special newborn care unit sncu for the year 20192020 by the national health mission tamil naduaround 1300 to 1500 newborn babies are treated for any illness or medical condition including premature birth neonatal respiratory syndrome or infectious diseases at the 28bedded sncu ward in the hospital every year all neonatal cases are challenging to handle this year the census was higher than usual due to the covid19 pandemic and we had to handle covid19 positive pregnant women as well it has been additionally challenging but we are providing the best treatment we can our success rate last year was 968 said dr ramesh kumar nodal officer department of neonatology kanyakumari mchhe added that the hospital has various lifesaving equipment like ventilators for newborns continuous positive airway pressure cpap machine warmer with phototherapy etc bedside ultrasonography and echocardiography is also facilitated within the ward foetal counselling is also provided to antenatal mothers if the babies have any birth defects more than 85 of newborn babies weighing below 15kg have made full recovery and discharged at the hospital screening for retinopathy of prematurity rop in newborn babies and pneumococcal vaccination is also done at the unit as many as 73 newborn babies born from covid19 positive mothers were successfully treated and discharged at the sncu as well a statement said