India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is reportedly planning to set up a temporary hospital with 1,000 beds for Covid-19 patients in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The hospital will come up in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) stadium in Varanasi city.
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Indian news agency Hindustan Times reported that the decision was made after a meeting between DRDO officials and district administration.
Set to be housed within a huge tent (German hanger), the new temporary hospital is expected to be ready over the next two weeks.
Officials said that the hospital will be equipped with all facilities such as oxygen, water and a pharmacy.
With the increasing Covid-19 cases, the demand for beds has significantly increased for patients across the country.
At the new facility, 90 trauma centre beds will be reserved for Covid-19 patients, while the remaining 90 beds have been reserved for treating other patients, according to officials.
Additionally, officials asked BHU to provide data about the doctors, paramedical staff and technicians in order to make all necessary arrangements to operate the hospital and treat maximum number of patients at one location.
The state health department senior official said that various government and private hospitals have around 1,600 beds and over 1,200 beds are occupied.
Around 200 of 240 ventilator beds are occupied.
In another development, former Member of Parliament and a senior political party leader in the Indian state of Maharashtra Naresh Puglia has urged the state administration to build a 500-bed jumbo Covid hospital in Chandrapur to deal with the pandemic crisis.
Puglia said that the existing 1,067 beds available in dedicated Covid-19 hospitals are not sufficient to cope with the increasing number of patients.
