Union Home Secretary, Ajay Bhalla Wednesday asked the J&K government to immediately identify locations for two temporary 500-bedded COVID-19 hospitals, one each in Srinagar and Jammu even as it told the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to submit the corresponding estimates for setting up the facilities.
The directions were passed by the Home Secretary while chairing a high-level meeting for reviewing the establishment of the two COVID-19 hospitals, a J&K government handout said this afternoon.
Chief Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir B V R Subrahmanyam, FC Health Atal Dulloo, Union Secretaries of the concerned departments and officers from DRDO, ITBP, and AFMS Institute participated in the meeting.
The Chief Secretary informed that the UT has witnessed a consistent surge in patient-load over the past few days.
Although the existing health care facilities were “adequately catering to the needs of patients”, “a continuation of this upward trend may lead to a shortage of COVID beds”, the CS told the meeting.
In order to successfully mitigate shortages in medical facilities, the J&K CS requested that the temporary DRDO COVID hospitals be constructed well in time.
He further requested that the upcoming hospitals must be equipped with isolation beds having oxygen support and 125 fully equipped ICU beds.
Assessing the requirement of dedicated COVID infrastructure in the Union territory, the Union Home Secretary asked the government of Jammu and Kashmir to immediately identify suitable locations for constructing 500-bedded hospitals while asking DRDO to evaluate and submit corresponding proposal estimates through a team of experts.
The meeting was informed that the government of Jammu & Kashmir has identified two patches of land in Jammu and Srinagar for early start of construction work.
Pertinently, in the past, the Defence Research and Development Organization has built 1000 bedded temporary COVID hospitals across the country in approximately 12 days each.
As per the government handout, the construction of two 500-bedded hospitals in J&K “will greatly reinforce medical infrastructure for dedicated COVID care in the Union territory”.