Railways offer new Vadodara training institute's hostel for use as quarantine centres

To deal with the coronavirus outbreak, one of the strategies is to lodge suspected individuals and positive cases in quarantine facilities where the patient has no physical contact with others. The government has stepped up its efforts to install new quarantine facilities across India to house ever-rising COVID-19 patients.

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Railway hostel in Vadodara

Now to supplement these efforts, the Indian Railways has identified the new hostel building of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project training institute in Gujarat's Vadodara, for creating a backup quarantine centre. The state-run transporter said the centre includes 168 rooms with 334 beds and 12 big common rooms.

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Train coaches to quarantine centres

Earlier, there were reports that the Railways was planning to transform its coaches into quarantine facilities to aid COVID-19 containment efforts. Trains would likely be transformed into holding centres for patients and paramedical staff who will be treating them. There is no official announcement of such a measure yet, but should the Railways do it, it will add firepower to India's fight against coronavirus.

Amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of COVID-19, the Indian Railways on Wednesday announced that no passenger, mail, express or suburban trains will run till the midnight of April 14 except freight trains will continue to operate in order to supply the essential commodities. A railway ministry release said that it has decided to extend the cancellation of passenger trains in the wake of the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs. 15,000 crore package, mobilised to treat COVID-19 patients and acquire essential supplies like isolation beds, ventilators and install new quarantine and testi

ng facilities to fight the outbreak. Since then, various public, as well as private institutions, have offered their rooms and spare housing spaces to be used as quarantine centres.

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(Picture credit: Twitter/@RailMinIndia)