NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, APR 26
Nineteen more private medical facilities in Ahmedabad have come forward to serve as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and care centres, adding 292 beds for patients in the city, officials said on Monday.
With this, there are now 167 private facilities requisitioned by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for treating COVID-19 patients, as per the update made available by an association of city-based hospitals and nursing homes.
The Gujarat government has exempted private clinics, nursing homes, and multi-speciality hospitals from seeking permission to convert to dedicated COVID-19 facilities. They are only required to inform the authorities about it, according to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
As part of the policy, 19 more private hospitals, multi-speciality facilities, clinics and nursing homes came forward in the last three-four days to serve as COVID-19 hospitals and care centres, the AMC said in a release.
This has made 292 more beds available for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the city, it said.
Amid the second wave of the pandemic, so far over 150 private hospitals here have been designated as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, over 170 as COVID-19 health centres, and more than 20 as COVID-19 care centres, the AMC said.
These private facilities have added 9,683 beds in various categories like isolation wards, Intensive Care Units (ICUs) with and without ventilators, and High Dependency Units (HDUs), the release said.
Out of the 9,683 beds in these facilities, 7,939 are occupied as of Monday morning, with few vacancies left in the ICUs or HDUs meant for critical patients, it said.
Ahmedabad has seen a massive surge in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks, with the daily infection count rising from 951 on April 8 to 5,790 on April 25.
As of now, there are 43,899 active COVID-19 cases in the city which has reported 2,694 deaths so far due to the disease, according to official figures.
