NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, MAY 19
The Gujarat government on Tuesday designated a newly-built hospital building on the campus of the civil hospital here for the treatment of coronavirus positive patients. This will help meet the shortage of beds for coronavirus patients in the state, a senior government official said.
The new multi-storey building, which was supposed to treat children with heart problems, is located adjacent to the existing U N Mehta Institute of Cardiology and Research Centre (UNMICRC), popularly known as heart hospital.
This new structure was supposed to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 22, but the programme got cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
On Tuesday, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel visited the new building which can treat 228 coronavirus patients.
“Global trends suggest that we may have to live with coronavirus for a long time. As a precautionary measure, we have decided to utilise this new building for treating COVID- 19 patients whenever a need arises. We have made necessary changes in infrastructure (of the building),” Patel told reporters.
Ahmedabad civil hospital with the capacity of 2,000 beds and 800-bed civic-run SVP Hospital are the two major hospitals designated by the government to treat coronavirus patients.
“The combined capacity of these two hospitals is around 2,000 beds. We have also notified some private and trust run hospitals across Gujarat for COVID-19 treatment,” said Patel who also heads Health department.
At present, all the 33 districts have at least one dedicated hospital, irrespective of the very low number of cases in some districts, he said.
Earlier, officials had claimed that over 6,000 beds in different hospitals across Gujarat have been kept reserved for coronavirus patients.
As on Monday (May 18), Gujarat’s tally of COVID-19 cases stood at 11,746 with 694 deaths so far.
