BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to gear up health infrastructure in view of the Covid-19 surge, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday requested Minister for Coal and Steel Pralhad Joshi to allow Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s (MCL) hospital at Talcher to function as a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.
Keeping in mind the exponential rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Angul and limited Covid-19 treatment facilities in the region, it is essential to operationalise and supplement critical medical infrastructure in the area, Pradhan said in a letter to Joshi.
He requested personal intervention of Joshi in declaring the Nehru Satabdi Central Hospital (NSCH) of MCL as Covid hospital with ICU facilities and issue permission to officials concerned to make urgent arrangements for 100 ventilators at the hospital. He said that NSCH was functioning as Covid-19 hospital with 144 beds and 6 ICU units during the first wave of the pandemic.
“Due to the explosive resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the region, it is critical to grant permission for supplementing Covid-19 care at NSCH, Talcher with 100 ventilators,” he said. Stating that India is now battling the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pradhan said the nation must simultaneously and rapidly ramp up all available health infrastructure for treating the mounting cases to bolster the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in fast tracking the vaccination programme. Angul saw 173 more people contracting the virus in the last 24 hours. The district now has 805 active cases.