56 fresh COVID-19 cases in T'gana; State govt readies 1500- bedded hospital in just 20 days
About a 1,000-strong workforce sweated it out to convertthe tower, part of the sports complex, built in 2002, into afull-fledged coronavirus hospital with 50 Intensive Care Unit(ICU) beds, a senior official of the Telangana governmentinvolved in the execution of the healthcare centre, said.
He said the the facility is now ready to accommodatepatients.
The official said that the state government has provedthat not only China,which reportedly built a makeshift 1,000-bedded hospital in just 10 days in Wuhan at the peak of thecoronavirus spread, but also Telangana can do wonders in termsof making quick decisions and execution of plans.
The Telangana State Medical Services InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation (TSMSIDC) undertook the task andfinished it in less than three weeks.
"It is a refurbished hospital. They used the first sevenfloors a decade ago. The remaining six floors were in semi-finished condition and never put to use.
As soon as we got the nod from the state government westarted working on that made it ready in 20 days. The hospitalis now ready to take patients," the official told .
Another official said as many as 400 doctors and doublethe number of nursing staff can work at the new facility.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had on April 19 saidthe hospital will later be converted into a super- specialtyhospital, known as the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciencesand Research (TIMS).
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases continued to surge in thestate, with 56 reported on Tuesday.
The total number of cases reported mounted to 928, ahealth department bulletin said.
No death was reported on Tuesday and the number of peoplewho succumbed to the virus stood at 23. Eight persons weredischarged from hospitals, taking the number ofcured and or discharged to 194.
Suryapet district, about 135 km from Hyderabad, emergedas a hot spot with 26 fresh cases reported on Tuesday.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) areacontinued to witness a rise in cases with 19 being reportedfrom the city.
Most of the COVID-19 cases in the state are from GHMC.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asked the ChiefSecretary, DGP and other senior officials to visit differentdistricts to monitor how the measures initiated to contain thespread of COVID-19 are being implemented.
As per his instructions, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar,DGP Mahender Reddy and other officials would visit Suryapet,Gadwal and Vikarabad districts on Wednesday, an officialrelease said.
The state government has decided to depute three IASofficers to affected areas in Vikarabad, Gadwal and Suryapetdistricts and then submit reports to the Chief Secretary,official sources said. Health authorities in Telangana have decided not to takesamples from the bodies of those suspected to have died withsymptoms of COVID-19, but follow all due protocols, includingdisposal of the body, contact tracing of the person, isolationand testing by treating it as a suspect case. "Whatever the protocols are followed for a positive casewill be followed," a health official said.
Meanwhile, the lockdown was implemented more strictly inthe state by police and a special drive was conducted in thecity against those roaming on vehicles unnecessarily. Thevehicles of violators were seized.
A case was registered against a 38-year-old man fromUttar Pradesh after he allegedly spit on the road when apolice patrolling team found him roaming in Nacharam area byviolating the lockdown norms.
The man argued with police personnel and spit on the roadwhen they asked him the reasons for moving on the road, policesaid.
The state government has disallowed spitting in publicplaces in the state in the wake of COVID-19 spread.
The Chief Minister had on Sunday last announcedextension of ongoing lockdown in the state till May 7. SJRGDK VVK APRRAVINDRANATH APRRAVINDRANATH