Assam Govt sets up 800-bed facility in Guwahati's Khanapara to combat COVID

Guwahati: To ramp up its capacity to treat COVID-19 patients, the Assam health department has begun construction of an 800-bed facility in Khanapara area of Guwahati, Assam.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has been at the forefront of the fight against the virus, inspected the site along with health officials yesterday and informed that the facility will soon be functional. An 800-bed temporary hospital for #COVID19 patients is under construction at Khanapara field, Guwahati & will soon be functional, adding up to our treatment capacity. Inspected the site along with health officials & advised them to ensure the best facilities and practises", Sarma tweeted.

At a time when the number of cases has breached the 6,000-mark, this makeshift facility is expected to boost the Government's capability to fight the disease on a war footing. The situation has become extremely serious in Guwahati, where out of 762 confirmed COVID-19 cases that have been detected since June 15, 677 people so not have any travel history whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Sarma has also said that the number of patients could soon surpass the number of hospital beds that are available to treat COVID patients. "The city has only 890 hospital beds. It would be out of control if the COVID-19 tally keeps on increasing with the current trend," the minister said at a presser yesterday, adding that Guwahati patients would have to be ferried to hospitals in other places if the curve is not brought under control.

To arrest the spread of the virus, the Government has now imposed a 14-day complete lockdown in Guwahati metro from Sunday midnight onwards. "This will trouble people, it will harm the interests of the business establishments. However, the Government has to take tough decisions., These decisions are painful, but with great pain and sorrow, we have to take this decision. We did not think that we would have to shift from an unlock phase to lockdown, but we had no other option", Sarma said.

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