Odisha to have 2 new COVID-19 hospitals with total capacity of 300 beds
The hospitals, for treatment of COVID-19 patientsonly, will come up in association with National AluminiumCompany (NALCO) and Paradip Port Trust (PPT).
While Nalco has come forward to fund an exclusive 200-bed COVID-19 hospital at Nabarangpur, PPT will set up a 100-bed hospital for treatment of coronavirus patients at the porttown of Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district, an official said.
Odisha has already set up 10 dedicated COVID-19hospitals with a total bed strength of 1,950 and these twofacilities will raise the capacity to 2,250 beds.
The state plans to establish around 34 exclusiveCOVID-19 hospitals with a capacity of 6,000 beds, the officialsaid.
For the COVID-19 hospital at Nabarangpur, a tripartiteagreement has been signed by NALCO, the districtadministration and the Christian Hospital there, he said.
Sridhar Patra, CMD, NALCO, said the Navaratna PSUstood with the people of Odisha in the past during naturalcalamities.
This time, the crisis is more challenging and ofunprecedented scale, and we at NALCO reiterate our pledge toextend our wholehearted support in whatever ways we can, headded.
A similar MoU has been signed between Jagatsinghpurdistrict collector, chief district medical officer of thedistrict and PPT for setting up a dedicated COVID-19healthcare centre in Paradip, the official said.
Meanwhile, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Saturdaycarried several cartons of medicines at different railwaystations in the state.
The medicine packets were delivered at Palasa,Brahmapur, Bolangir, Bargarh, Sambalpur and Rayagada railwaystations in Odisha.
Besides, medical equipment was also delivered atKesinga in Kalahandi district, an ECoR official said.
The medicines and medical equipment were dispatchedfrom Visakhapatnam station by Special Parcel Express in themorning, he said, adding that other essential items, includingmilk powder, were delivered at Brahmapur station.
Green coconut was delivered at Titilagarh andBolangir, while grocery items were taken to Rayagada fromVizianagram, he said.
A total of 58 wagons carrying 3,364 tonnes of wheat,packed in 65,898 bags, was transported to Cuttack from Garhain Madhya Pradesh, the official said, adding that rice bagsare being loaded at Srikakulam, Pendurthy, Bargarh Road andBolangir by FCI to be taken to South India.Besides, the Odisha government on Saturday said about94 lakh families covered under the national and state foodsecurity schemes will get free of cost rice and dal because ofthe difficulties owing to the month-long lockdown imposed tostop the spread of coronavirus, official sources said.The rice and dal will be distributed among the poorpeople under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Anna Yojana, an officialsaid.The poor people will get ration for April, May andJune, the official said. SKN AAMSBN SBN