Regular treatment resumes at 1,200-bed COVID hospital

Life is limping back to normalcy in Ahmedabad after months of COVID scare and lockdown. More than ten months since the 1200-bed facility in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital was allocated solely for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, the unit resumed operations on Tuesday for pediatric, gynecology, and obstetric treatment, as the facility was originally allocated for.

Hospital Superintendent Dr J V Modi and additional superintendents Dr Rakesh Joshi and Dr Rajnish Patel marked the reopening with a “puja”.

Scaling down the unit, two hundred beds will be kept aside for Covid-19 patients while the remaining 1,000 beds shall be available for regular patients. The new facility was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019 and was roped in for Covid-19 treatment exclusively by April 7, 2020.

The facility was initially designed for treatment related to women and children exclusively.

As per the state health department, more than 70,000 patients were treated for Covid-19 at the 1200-bed facility. At present fewer than 50 Covid-19 patients are admitted at the 1200-bed facility. On Tuesday, 263 new cases of Covid-19 were added while another 271 were discharged. Ahmedabad city reported 54 new cases and a Covid-19 fatality.

Of the 33 districts, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat reported nearly 160 cases, comprising 60 percent of the day’s caseload.