60-bedded safe home for kids to come up in city

KOLKATA: At a time when a section of doctors have predicted that more children will be at the receiving end of the third wave of COVID-19, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is planning to develop a safe home facility exclusively for the children at Paikpara in North Kolkata. The civic body is also closing down five safe homes in the city with immediate effect with Covid positive cases dropping drastically.

"The Uttirna Safe Home in Alipore and another at Behala Polytechnic College will remain operational. The other five safe homes at Harekrishna Seth Lane, Pratidin safe home, North Maternity safe home, Champamani maternity home and Goenka Hospital safe home will be closed down with immediate effect. The small number of patients who are presently in these five safe homes will be relocated to Uttirna," a senior KMC official said.

Meanwhile, as per plans of KMC the safe home for children with 60 beds will come up inside the ladies hostel of RG Kar Medical College Hospital which is located at Harekrishna Seth Lane in Paikpara.

The Institute of Child Health has agreed to train some KMC doctors in handling child care in the upcoming safe home.

A child along with his father can stay in a single room in the facility. The number of Covid affected cases in Kolkata has come down to 171.