Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday inaugurated COVID-19 makeshift hospitals at Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College Tanda in Kangra district and Civil Hospital Nalagarh in Solan district.
The makeshift hospital at Tanda will work as Communicable Diseases ward while the makeshift hospital at Nalagarh will work as Trauma Care Centre in view of decline in COVID-19 cases in Himachal.
Naidu inaugurated the hospitals through video conferencing on the occasion of Platinum Jubilee foundation day function of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee.
On the occasion, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that an amount of Rs 3.44 crore has been spent on infrastructure development of 66 bedded COVID-19 hospital at Tanda and Rs 2.36 crore on 45 bedded COVID-19 makeshift hospital, Nalagarh.
He said that 18-bedded makeshift hospital at Indira Gandhi Medical College Shimla has already been made functional by spending an amount of Rs 1.37 crore. A 100-bedded makeshift hospital was being constructed at Nerchowk in Mandi district, by spending an amount of Rs 6.11 crore, he said.
The Chief Minister said that due to the sudden rise in the number of COVID-19 cases during month of August-September last year, a need was felt to create makeshift hospitals in the state to cope with requirement of beds for COVID-19 patients without affecting the medical treatment of the other patients.
He said that these make shift hospitals constructed by CSIR-CBRI were not only constructed in a very short time but have all the modern facilities. Now, with sharp decrease in number of active cases of Coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh, the State Government has decided to convert the makeshift hospital at IGMC Shimla as Medicine Intensive Care Unit, makeshift hospital at Tanda as Communicable Diseases ward, makeshift hospital at Nalagarh as Trauma Care Centre and makeshift hospital at Nerchowk in Mandi district as Super speciality ward to facilitate the people, he added.
The Chief Minister further said that in the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive, over 93000 frontline workers were being vaccinated in the state.