Lucknow: KGMU gets UP’s biggest level-3 Covid-19 hospital

LUCKNOW: Amid a surge of coronavirus cases over the past few weeks, Lucknow got UP's biggest Level-3 (L3) Covid hospital on Monday even as 620 critical care beds were added to the state’s medical facilities on a single day.
While KGMU transformed its Artifical Limb Centre building into a 320-bed facility, a 300-beds Covid hospital was launched, along with, UP's first biosafety Level-3 Lab (BSL-3), at Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated both the hospitals on Monday.

With this, the number of life-saving L2 and L3 beds in the state reached 3,820 which is an increment of about 73% since August 1 when there were about 2200 such beds in the state. In a week or so, 100 ICU beds will be added in Kanpur – the home to most Covid-19 deaths in the state.
Progress speaks for hard work by govt: CM
Announcing that KGMU was home to UP's biggest L-3 Covid-19 hospital, the chief minister said: “Even though 80% of Covid-19 patients can be managed at home, the critical ones need immediate medical attention for which level-2 and level-3 centers are needed. In wake of the need the strategy was improvised. As a result, in the past 15 days, we have been able to start four dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in UP.”
Lauding the officials, the CM said: “The progress speaks for the hard work put in by the government. When we started, most districts had level-1 and level-2 hospitals only. But in the past 15 days, remarkable work has been done.”
Earlier, 300-bed dedicated covid-19 hospitals were started in Gautam Budh Nagar and Gonda with the help of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and Tata Trust.
Medical education minister Suresh Khanna said: “The tireless work by health staff at the L2 and L3 facilities has kept UP’s mortality rate below 2% which is way less than the national average." With the rising number of cases, the need for L-2 and L-3 beds went up drastically towards the end of July. The average number of patients under treatment at L-2 and L-3 facilities of UP was 1500 till the end of June. This went up to around 4,500 by August 15. Nearly 2 lakh Covid-19 cases have been added to the state's tally in July and August.
“Covid-19 virus tends to attack the lungs which trigger an oxygen imbalance in the body. Unless supported externally, the patient cannot breathe properly which puts immense load on the body’s usual functioning.
“So much so that a patient may even die in a few hours. But every life is precious and therefore efforts are being made to increase the L-2 and L-3 beds further. In fact, in a matter of 10-12 days, we will be able to achieve the target of doubling the beds in this category,” said additional chief secretary medical education, Dr Rajneesh Dube.
It may be noted that reviewing the covid-19 situation on August 1, the UP CM Yogi Adityanath had directed officials to double the number of secondary (Level-2) and tertiary (Level-3) care beds at the earliest.