10k-bed care centre in Chhatarpur gets its 1st set of patients
nNEWDELHI: The 10,000-bed Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre jointly set up by the Centre and the Delhi government at the campus of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas in south Delhi’s Chhatarpur received its first Covid-19 patients on Sunday. By evening, at least 21 patients, including four with mild comorbidities, had been admitted to the centre -- all aged between 20 and 50 years, senior government officials said.
Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal on Sunday morning visited the facility, accompanied by SS Deswal, director-general of the Indo-tibetan Border Police (ITBP) — the nodal agency in charge of the facility.
In a series of tweets, Baijal said: “Visited Covid Care Centre at Radhasoami Satsang Beas, Chhatarpur. Reviewed with agencies concerned availability of facilities like beds, oxygen cylinders/concentrators, ventilator, ICU and medical staff. Advised to keep special focus on severely ill patients and if required, shift then to dedicated Covid hospitals.
The ITBP said in a statement, “Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal inaugurated the facility with SS Deswal, DG ITBP. Baijal congratulated ITBP for taking over the facility. He took a round of facilities at the centre and addressed the gathering.”
The facility, the biggest of its kind in the country, has had several high profile visitors over the past few weeks, including Union home minister Amit Shah and Delhi chief minister Kejriwal — both of whom visited the care centre on June 27 — and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. Both Shah and Kejriwal had last visited the centre to take stock of the arrangements.
After the L-G’S visit on Sunday, Deswal told reporters that all aspects of the facility will be maintained by ITBP staff. “They have managed such facilities that had earlier accommodated arrivals from Wuhan [in China]. Other than that, ITBP also manages a Covid-19 hospital in Noida. We are capable of managing more than 10,000 patients.”
While 90% of the facility will act as a Covid Care Centre (CCC) — for patients with mild to moderate symptoms, the rest will have oxygen-equipped beds and other facilities required for a Covid Health Centre (CHC), meant to care for patients with moderate to severe symptoms.
South district magistrate BM Mishra said, “Around 1.30pm, a 35-year-old south Delhi resident was the first to be admitted in the centre. By 6pm, the centre had 21 Covid patients admitted with mild to moderate symptoms, of whom four have mild comorbidities.”
He added, “The youngest patient is aged 20 years, the oldest is 50. Most are people who did not have adequate space in their residences for home isolation.”
More than 15,500 patients are recovering in their homes compared to 1,726 currently in around 15 CCCS across the city.
The centre has around 1,000 doctors and health staff and 1,000 other staff engaged in maintenance, management, quick response teams, helpdesk, control room and security, an ITBP statement read.
Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the community medicines department in Safdarjung Hospital, said, “For a health centre like that, proper strategy is needed to cover the management of patient movements, health care worker movements, toilets, changing rooms, equipment stores, etc. These security agencies have expertise in these areas.”