DRDO hosp likely to start from Wed
LUCKNOW : A 505-bed temporary Covid-19 hospital set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Awadh Shilp Gram on Shaheed Path here is likely to start functioning from May 5. The total beds at the hospital include 355 general and 150 ICU beds.
“The trial runs carried out recently (April 30) were successful and now the hospital is expected to start functioning from Wednesday onwards,” said defence minister Rajnath Singh’s Lok Sabha representative Diwakar Tripathi.
“Due to the ongoing pandemic, the hospital’s inauguration has been kept a low-key affair where the defence minister will mark his presence via videoconferencing while CM Yogi Adityanath is expected to be present there,” Tripathi added.
The hospital is the initiative of the defence minister to give relief to the people in Lucknow, also his parliamentary constituency. The trial run of the temporary Covid hospital started on Friday in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. However, the DRDO is yet to release the date from which the hospital would start admitting Covid patients.
“The trial run went off successfully. The hospital will start taking admission very soon,” said Dr Narendra Kumar Arya, director of the Directorate of Public Interface (DPI). Initially, the hospital was expected to start on April 30. DRDO officials said the hospital would be run jointly by army and the state government doctors.