Temporary Covid hospital with 100 beds gets flooded after rainfall

Gurgaon: The 100-bed makeshift Covid hospital at Tau Devi Lal stadium got flooded after Wednesday’s showers. Although the facility was formally inaugurated by the chief minister on Sunday, it is not operational yet and does not have any patients.
Once ready, the hospital will have 25 ICU, 10 HDU and 10 ventilator beds. The rest of the beds will have oxygen support, officials said.
When TOI visited the spot on Thursday, the area was inundated with sewage and rainwater. Electrical work is going on in this makeshift hospital and an oxygen pipeline is being laid. But officials said the work has halted now as some of the structure has been damaged. “We will be taking all precautions to ensure that water flows out of the site in case it rains again,” a GMDA official said. Those managing the facility said that because of waterlogging, the project might get delayed. “Work to set up generators and toilets, along with electrical work, is going on and because of the rain, all this will get delayed,” said an official involved with the project.
The hospital is being set up by the Vedanta group and the district administration. “Earlier, we wanted it to have around 80 oxygen beds. But currently, we have enough oxygen beds in the district. So, we have decided to develop this hospital with more ICU and ventilator beds,” said Yash Garg, the deputy commissioner, Gurgaon.
Since it did not rain on Thursday, officials are hoping that they will be able to open the hospital by this weekend. “It is good that it did not rain on Thursday. It was a bright day, which helped us immensely. By Thursday night we were able to drain out water that had accumulated and we are hopeful that we will be able to start this hospital latest by Saturday or Sunday,” said a senior district official.
Asked about a possible delay, the official said: “Even during the inauguration, it was mentioned that there will be a delay of two-three days in starting the facility. We were almost ready but then the rain delayed the work. The hospital has been set up on a raised platform due to which we were able to drain out the water easily. The workers are giving finishing touches and we will start admitting patients once all labourers leave the site.”
The administration is planning to run the facility for at least six months. It will have a central air-conditioning system and a transformer to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Meanwhile, seven-eight eight patients have been admitted to the Sector 67 facility and the Covid centre at Sector 14 has three-four patients now.