Two dedicatedCovid-19 hospitals with a combined bed strength of 350 were made operational in Odisha on Friday.With the inauguration of the two facilities, Odisha has made 10 such hospitals to treat cornavirus patients, and the total bed capacity of the hospitals set up exclusively for treatment of patients with coronavirus infection has gone up to 1,950, officials said.Of the two hospitals inaugurated on Friday, one facility is in Ganjam district while the second is in Jajpur district.The facility at Tata Steel Medica with a bed strength of 200 is located at Sitalapalli near here in Ganjam district.Inaugurating the facility through video-conference, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik praised the Ganjam district administration for readying the hospital in record time.The hospital to be managed by Tata Care and funded by Tata Steel will have 15 beds in the Intensive Care Unit(ICU).District collector Vijay Amruta Kulange said, the number of beds in the ICU would be increased to 20 in next ten days.As many as 16 doctors and 70 staff, including nurses and paramedics from the government-run MKCG Medical College and Hospital, will manage the facility.Besides the ICU, the hospital will have isolation wards with 40 beds and 140 general beds.A Covid-19 patient will be first admited to the isolation ward for preliminary treatment and then shifted to the general ward. Patients in serious condition will be shifted to the critical care unit, he said.Meanwhile, Jajpur district administration dedicated a 150-bed facility at the transformed Duburi Tata Steel Medica Hospital at Duburi with 15 beds in the ICU.The hospital has 20 doctors and 30 others, including nurses and paramedical personnel, Jajpur District Collector Ranjan Kumar Das said.
