Telangana has readied a 1,500-bed hospital in Hyderabad in just 20 days by transforming a 14-story tower in a sports complex into a special medical facility for COVID-19 cases.
About a 1,000-person strong workforce sweated it out to convert the tower, part of the sports complex built in 2002, into a full-fledged coronavirus hospital with 50 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, a senior official of the Telangana government involved in the execution of the healthcare centre, said. He said that the facility is now ready to accommodate patients.
The official said that the state government has proved that not only China, which reportedly built a makeshift 1,000-bedded hospital in just 10 days in Wuhan at the peak of the coronavirus spread, but also Telangana can do wonders in terms of making quick decisions and execution of plans.
The Telangana State Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) undertook the task and finished it in less than three weeks.
"It is a refurbished hospital. They used the first seven floors 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, we started working on that and made it ready in 20 days. The hospital is now ready to take patients," the official told PTI.
Another official said as many as 400 doctors and double the number of nursing staff can work at the new facility.
My compliments to Health Minister @Eatala_Rajender Garu & his team on a fabulous job of converting the sports tower into Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences with 1500 beds
— KTR (@KTRTRS) April 21, 2020
All this done in less than 20 days
Initially will be exclusive to #TelanganaFightsCorona 1/2 pic.twitter.com/If7SHcamez
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had on April 19 said that the hospital will later be converted into a super-specialty hospital, known as the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (TIMS).
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases continued to surge in the state, with 56 reported on Tuesday. The total number of cases reported mounted to 928, a health department bulletin said.
No death was reported on Tuesday and the number of people who succumbed to the virus stood at 23. Eight persons were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of discharged patients to 194.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area continued to witness a rise with 19 cases being reported from the city. Most of the COVID-19 cases in the state are under the jurisdiction of the GHMC.
On Tuesday, KCR asked the Chief Secretary, DGP and other senior officials to visit different districts to monitor how the measures initiated to contain the spread 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 official release said.
The Chief Minister has already announced an extension of the ongoing lockdown in the state till May 7.
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