BENGALURU: Following a directive from the Railway Board to all zones, asking for quarantine wards to be put in place for treating patients with incidence of COVID-19, the South Western Railway Zone has decided to earmark 216 beds for the treatment of patients in Hubballi, Bengaluru and Mysuru Railway Divisions. This is an emergency precautionary measure being taken by the zonal officials.
According to an official release, seven locations — three of them under Bengaluru Division — have been identified to be converted as quarantine wards. These are the wards created: Multi Discipline Training Centre at Ashokapuram in Mysuru, Diesel Training Centre at Hubballi, Women Barrakcs of Railway Protection Force in Hubballi, Supervisors Training Centre in Bengaluru, Divisional PWay Training Centre near Bengaluru Cantonment and Indian Railway Institute for Disaster Management, Hejjala, at Ramanagara.
“The facility can be used for general public and in case of necessity, the state government can also use them,” the release said.These beds have been selected out of the 706 across 229 rooms in its training facilities. The remaining beds can be made use of in case of any emergency by rescheduling training programmes.
As a precautionary measure, separate clinics have also been formed for patients having cough and fever, at Central Hospital in Hubballi, Railway Hospital in Mysuru and Railway Hospital in Bengaluru, it said. Medical help is also being extended at railway stations, to passengers who aren’t feeling well. Railways has also suspended biometric attendance for all its employees. Masks, gloves, caps, hand-wash sanitisers and aprons have been stocked in sufficient quantity.
Elaborating the steps being taken by the SWR zone, the release said the COVID-19 campaign for health education and awareness programme commenced three days ago by distributing handouts and educative materials with the aim of spreading awareness among passengers.
Video clips issued by Health department are being shown on CCTV for the benefit of the public. Educative messages on prevention of the virus are issued via social media by SWR using #cautionyespanickno.