Howrah set to add 500 beds to treat Covid patients

Kolkata: The Howrah district authority is increasing 500 beds for COVID-19 treatment.

Two more hospitals in the district are being roped in for treatment of the people suffering from the virus.

This comes with the district witnessing an increase in COVID-19 cases to around 55 per cent of the total swab sample tests conducted every day. Around 850 swab sample tests are taking place daily in the district. A month ago just 10 percent used to test positive.

The two more hospitals that will be roped in include the state-run TL Jaiswal Hospital and the samity-run Belur Sramajibi Hospital.

There are around 256 beds in TL Jaiswal Hospital where 200 beds will get dedicated for COVID-19 treatment while around 100 beds will be dedicated in Sramajibi Hospital. At the same time, 100 more beds in each of the already existing dedicated COVID-19 hospitals —ESI Uluberia and ESI Baltikuri—will get added. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday had announced that around 4,000 beds will be incressed for Covid treatment in different state-run and private hospitals.

Now with the increase of 500 hundred beds in Howrah, the number is going to reach to 4,500 in the state.

At present there are 930 beds in six dedicated COVID-19 hospitals including three private ones in the district.

The hospitals include Sanjiban Hospital with 320 beds, ILS Hospitals with 89 beds, Narayana Hospital with 50 beds, Satyabala ID Hospital with 25 beds, ESI Uluberia with 216 beds and ESI Baltikuri with 230 beds for COVID-19 treatment.

Dr Bhabani Das, Chief Medical Officer (Health) of Howrah, said: "Our endeavour is to ensure timely admission of COVID-19 patients and taking all necessary measures in this regard." Besides increasing the total number of beds, the district administration has also taken a move to increase Safe Homes. At present the first floor of Dumurjola Stadium with 200 beds has been turned to Safe Home while there is a quarantine centre in the first floor of the stadium.

Again, a 300-bed Safe Home has been developed at the annex building of ESI Baltikuri. So far 4755 people tested positive and 141 people died due to the disease in the district and 3252 have got cured. As many as 34,667 swab sample tests have been conducted.