Reliance sets up India's first COVID-19 dedicated hospital in Mumbai

In its bit to mitigate the outbreak of coronavirus, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Monday said that it has set up India's first COVID-19 dedicated hospital in Mumbai. This comes after the number of positive cases in India have soared to over 415 with Maharashtra recording the highest number at 89.

An official statement by RIL apprised about the collaboration with BMC in setting up the first-of-its-kind-in-India centre with the required infrastructure, biomedical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines, and patient monitoring devices.

"Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has set up a dedicated 100 bedded COVID-19 centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai for patients who test positive for COVID-19," RIL said in an official statement.

"This first-of-its-kind-in-India centre is fully funded by Reliance Foundation and includes a negative pressure room that helps in preventing cross-contamination and helps control infection. All beds are equipped with the required infrastructure, biomedical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines, and patient monitoring devices," it added.

RIL has also announced initial support of Rs 5 crores to Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to combat coronavirus spread. The company is enhancing its production capacities to produce 100,000 face-masks per day and a large number of personal protective equipment for the nation's health workers to equip them further to fight coronavirus.

"RIL has today announced initial support of Rs 5 crores to Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund. RIL has deployed the combined strengths of Reliance Foundation, Reliance Retail, Jio, Reliance Life Sciences, Reliance Industries, and all the 6,00,000 members of the Reliance Family to fight against COVID-19. RIL is enhancing its production capacities to produce 100,000 face-masks per day and a large number of personal protective equipments for the nation's health workers to equip them further to fight coronavirus," the statement said.

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Dr. Devi Shetty emphasises on need for 'special COVID-19 hospitals'

Noted cardiac surgeon and Narayana Health founder Dr. Devi Shetty stressed on the need of setting up exclusive COVID-19 hospitals. Speaking exclusively to Republic TV, Dr. Shetty reasoned out the need for exclusive COVID-19 hospitals in order to mitigate the situation.

Giving an example of a city like Banglore, Dr. Shetty stated that every hospital in the city is well equipped to contain the disease and added that if patients are distributed across the city, it will be difficult to manage the situation. 

"Giving an example of a city like Bangalore, a city like this will have a few thousand positive cases and it will require some type of critical care service. So it is very important to identify large hospitals in the heart of the city, which is already run by the government, as it will require infrastructure to manage 2000 patients and it would offer critical care with piped oxygen. If the COVID-19 patients are distributed across the city it will be very difficult to manage and they will spread," said Dr. Shetty.

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(With inputs from ANI)