BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK:As cases in the State Capital rapidly surge, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday announced strengthening of beds in all the dedicated Covid hospitals (DCHs) to deal with the third wave effectively.
The civic body signed a tripartite agreement with Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) on Saturday to reactivate the 500-bed DCH with support from the Odisha Mining Corporation.
It also signed another bilateral agreement with Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital to make the 238-bed hospital functional with immediate effect.
The SUM DCH, where the existing bed strength was 200 has also been increased to 810, while that of Aditya Ashwini DCH has been raised from existing 50 to 150 beds.
“This apart we have readied two 100-bed Covid Care Centres, one at Dumduma and the other at Patia for mild and asymptomatic patients,” said a senior official of the BMC.
The civic body declared 20 more residential units in three zones of the city as micro-containment zones on the day.
Meanwhile, Odisha on Saturday achieved the milestone of vaccinating over 3 crore people. Officials of Health and Family Welfare (HFW) department said 3.01 crore people have now been vaccinated with first dose, while 2.18 crore of them have also been administered both the doses of vaccine.
At Cuttack too, where daily cases crossed the 300-mark on the day, the health administration is gearing up to handle the crisis by enhancing the number of beds in hospitals.
“Though occupancy in hospitals is not high at present, we are expecting more admissions in hospitals across the district. Covid patients from other districts too are being admitted to hospitals in Cuttack. Hence, we are ensuring that the hospitals are ready to deal with any crisis,” said CMC Commissioner Ananya Das.
At present, while 32 patients are undergoing treatment at Ashwini Covid Hospital, 16 have been admitted to SCB Covid Hospital.