Odisha to have 36 dedicated hospitals for COVID-19 patients soon: Official

Amid spurt in coronavirus cases, the Odisha government is set to have 36 dedicated hospitals soon for treatment of COVID-19 patients, an official said on Wednesday. These hospitals covering all the 30 districts of the state will have a combined bed capacity of 6,000, he said.

As of now, "20 exclusive Covid hospitals" have already been made operational in 18 districts in the state with a total bed strength of 3,420 and 197 ICU facilities as part of the government's preparedness to deal with the pandemic, he said.

"We are taking concrete steps to make 16 more dedicated Covid hospitals in rest of the districts within the stipulated time frame. "The aim is to add 2,282 more beds and 38 ICU beds very soon to strengthen our preparedness to contain COVID-19,"the senior official said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given direction for making functional all the proposed Covid hospitals in the state within a week, he said, adding that officials are working on a war footing to achieve the goal. Among the upcoming dedicated Covid hospitals is a 110 -bedded facility being established at Jharsuguda. All the preparations in this regard are in full swing to ensure that the hospital is operational at the earliest, the official said.

Jharsuguda district administration has already signed an MoU with HITECH Medical College which will ensure operationalisation of the hospital. The facility is being developed at the old district headquarters hospital at Mangal Bazar, he said. As part of the corporate support to fight COVID-19, Vedanta Jharsuguda has committed more than Rs 2 crore to mobilise medical equipment, medicines, ventilators, beds, etc for the upcoming hospital, a company official said.

Two more new Covid hospitals with a total 300 bed capacity are coming up in partnership with National Aluminium Company (NALCO) and Paradip Port Trust (PPT) as part of the preparedness to deal with corona menace. While Nalco has come forward to fund an exclusive 200 bedded hospital at Nabarangpur, PPT will set up a dedicated facility with 100 beds for corona patients in Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district, officials said.

Similar hospitals exclusively for treatment of coronavirus-infected patients are going to be readied very soon in Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sonepur, Nuapada, Baripada, Angul, Puri, Phulbani, Cuttack and Nayagarh district, they said. "The aim is to ensure faster tests, diagnosis and proper treatment of suspected cases and confirmed patients," an official said.

At present, there are two dedicated hospitals in Bhubaneswar with a combined bed capacity of around 1,100, while Cuttack city also has an exclusive facility. Regarding testing of samples of suspected cases, he said Covid tests are now being conducted in a large number of centres located at almost all regions of the state. Apart from RMRC, AIIMS and ILS in Bhubaneswar and SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur and IGH, Rourkela have started testing of samples.

Steps are also being taken to ensure availability of medicines and equipment, personal protective gears and oxygen cylinders, the official said, adding that the state has adequate stocks of these materials at presents. As per the chief ministers directions, officials are ensuring a balanced distribution of medicines and equipment among exclusive hospitals, testing centres and other government health institutions.

"Adequate stocks of essential medicines including antibiotics are available for five months of consumption. We also have enough stock of three-layer masks, PPEs and hand sanitisers," the official said. So far, 1.53 lakh people including doctors and healthcare personnel have been given special training to fight COVID-19 in the state, he added. Odisha has reported 60 COVID-19 cases so far while 18 persons have recovered from the disease. A 72-year-old patient from the state capital died of the disease on April 6.