New Delhi, Jul 5 (UNI) Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday visited the newly-created 1,000 bed Sardar Patel Covid Hospital in Delhi Cantonment, which has been built in a record time of 12 days.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy were also present.
The facility, comprising 250 ICU beds, has been created by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Armed Forces and Tata Sons in a record time.
While Armed Forces Medical Services team will run the facility, DRDO will maintain it.
The Delhi Chief Minister said for the present, there was no scarcity of hospital beds. 'We have over 15,000 beds, out of which 5,300 are occupied. There is a paucity of ICU beds. If there is any spike in Covid cases, these ICU beds will be critical," he said, referring to the newly-built hospital.
The hospital is equipped with all the facilities for patients free-of-cost as well as a team of 600 Army personnel, who will be deployed for first month, including doctors, nursing officers and paramedical staff.
The hospital, which was almost built overnight, has come up on a garbage dumping land, which was levelled and then cleared.
Mr Shah later tweeted: "PM@narendramodi ji is fully committed to helping the people of Delhi in these challenging times and this Covid hospital, yet again, highlights the resolve. I thank DRDO, Tatas and our Armed Forces Medical personnel who have risen to the occasion and helped tackle the emergency."
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