Srinagar,June 09: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday inaugurated a 500-bedded Covid hospital in Srinagar. The facility was constructed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) COVID-19 hospital with an ICU facility,at Khonmoh in Srinagar district.

Housing all requisite modern facilities, the centrally air-conditioned hospital can accommodate 125 ICU beds, out of which 25 are reserved for children and 375 beds with 24-hour oxygen connectivity. “Ten bedded triage area has also been built in 100 sqm. The covid care facility will start its operations once the trial run of all the medical facilities is completed,” a government spokesman said.

Prior to this, DRDO had constructed a 500-bedded Covid hospital in Jammu as well.

Speaking on the occasion, the Lt Governor lauded DRDO for playing a key role in India’s fight against Covid-19. “I acknowledge the hard work of DRDO officials, who have completed both the hospitals in a short span of time, adding 1,000 additional beds to serve the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Sinha said.

Speaking about the government’s initiatives to transform J&K’s health system in view of the covid pandemic, Sinha said, “Our strategy has been to implement a host of interventions in response to the evolving situation and then quantifying the impact of those initiatives in providing relief to the patients and strengthening the overall healthcare delivery system.”

“Some notable interventions include continuous augmentation of ICU and oxygen supported beds, deployment of former medical staff, fast track deployment of newly qualified staff, decentralization of health system through Panchayat Covid Care Centres and starting an accelerated vaccination drive,” he added.

Sinha further said that it is because of the collective efforts of all organisations, that health officials in J&K now have more means to treat Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile,Dr Anil Khurana, cheif construction engineer, DRDO- Chandigarh said: This facility was constructed in 17 days.This 500- bedded facility includes 125 ICU beds and 375 beds connected to a high flow oxygen pipeline.we also have 60 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen tanks here.

Dr Anil Khurana further said the hospital will become backbone of Kashmir as this hospital has the latest facilities that help patients to recover fast from COVID-19 infection.