DRDO to set up two 500-bed COVID hospitals in Haryana

Amid the Covid surge in Haryana and national capital region (NCR), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is setting up two dedicated Covid hospitals at Panipat and Hisar.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Haryana health minister Anil Vij said that two hospitals of 500 beds each are in the process of being set up.

“The (Chandimandir-based) Western Command has been asked to provide doctors and medical staff. Work to start immediately,” Vij said on social media.

The minister said that there was no shortage of ICU beds, ventilators and oxygen cylinders in the state. “The state has 45,086 quarantine beds and 11,549 isolation beds, of which 89% are vacant. Oxygen availability is four times more than the consumption,” he said.

Presiding over a state-level Covid monitoring committee meeting , the health minister said critical corona care centres will be set up in all government medical colleges of the state.

Unlike neighbouring Punjab and Chandigarh, Haryana is not observing any lockdown on the occasion of Ram Navami on Wednesday.