A 10,000-bed makeshift hospital for Covid-19 patients has been planned by the Delhi government in South Delhi’s Radha Soami Satsang Beas campus, reports say. This measure has been taken to prepare for the upcoming surge in coronavirus cases in the national capital.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, along with a team of officials, on Sunday, inspected the site, which is located on the Delhi-Haryana border. South Delhi District Magistrate B.M. Mishra also visited the site to take a look into the available facilities. The spiritual organisation had approved of this plan two-three days ago.
Coronavirus cases in the national capital is estimated to reach 5 lakh by the end of July, for which around one lakh beds will be required to tackle the situation. Currently, Delhi has 9,816 beds in total in Centre-run, state-run and private hospitals dedicated for Covid-19 patients. Out of these beds, 5,399 are already occupied.
The process of identifying stadiums and community halls with the potential of being converted into makeshift Covid-19 hospitals has also been started by the Delhi government.
The facility at Radha Soami Satsang Beas at Bhati Mines will be sprawling over an area of 1,700 ft long and 700 ft wide. It will be divided into 200 enclosures with 50 beds each. According to reports, it will be the largest makeshift hospital in the city so far, and the work is expected to be completed by the end of June. Fans and lights are already installed inside the metal tent and coolers will be needed considering the heat.
Sonalika Jiwani, IAS, SDM, Mehrauli, said, “We have envisaged a capacity of around 10,000 beds distributed amongst them being provided with oxygen or them being isolated beds with basic facilities. This is a preliminary assessment. Within ten days, we will be clearly able to tell what kind of capacity we will be working on. The hospital will have polyvinyl flooring so that disinfection can take place very easily and secondly, we have been thinking of put- ting mosquito nets and basic polythene sheets around the entire premise just for the safety of patients and so that there are no mosquitoes especially during this monsoon season. We are also putting up water coolers and some kind of air conditioning arrangements.”
“We will also have enclosures of about fifty patients each so it will be divided into smaller square blocks. We are trying to follow isolation guidelines issued by the government. The reason we chose Radha Soami is because it has a huge capacity and not only in South Delhi, we are also planning to cater to the entire population of Delhi with this kind of facility as this provides a huge space. We do not need any other hall right now but once this capacity exhausts, which we do not think would happen, we will look into other banquet halls or open spaces,” she added.
B.M. Mishra, DM also said, “The administration wants to finish the work by June end at any cost. The spiritual organisation operates a large kitchen, which can feed one lakh people at a time, and there are around 500 toilets, which is enough for 10,000 Covid-19 patients. A doctor, two nurses, and a cleaner would be arranged for each enclosure. There is also a building on the campus that can be used for accommodating doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.”