Stepping up efforts to assist the civil administration in the fight against COVID-19, the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) has notified 50 of its hospitals as dedicated and mixed COVID hospitals for isolation and treatment.
Updating about these measures to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh here on Friday, AFMS chief Lt General Anup Banjerjee also said special [powers granted to senior officials has enabled in faster procurement of essential health equipment including face masks, sanitisers, personal protective equipment(PPE) and ventilators.
As regards the hospitals, officials said the hospitals have a combined bed capacity of 9,038 patients. Civilian COVID-19 cases would also be admitted in these hospitals as a surge capacity to augment the state healthcare facilities, they said.
In addition, training activities have been suspended at Army Medical Corps (AMC) Centre and College, Lucknow and Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) Pune and approximately 650 medical officers undergoing post graduate training at AFMC will be revert to units for providing medical cover depending on the situation. “In addition, 100 medical officers from recruiting organisations are being detailed to work in hospitals where COVID wards are being established,” officials said.
The Ministry said a list of retired AMC officers and paramedical staff has also been readied who may be requested to volunteer for working in AFMS hospitals at their current home stations if the need arises. Forty-three officers and 990 paramedics have volunteered till date, it stated. Six viral testing labs have already been established by AFMS with the help of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which are functional at various AFMS hospitals.
The AMC is currently also providing medical cover to the quarantine camp at Narela, New Delhi where a team of six medical officers and 18 paramedical staff have been deployed.
In a related development, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) introduced two new products to aid in the fight against COVID-19. These include an automatic mist based sanitiser dispensing unit developed by the Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), Delhi and an Ultraviolet-C Light based sanitisation box and hand held UV-C device designed and developed by Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) and Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (INMAS), both based in Delhi, the DRDO said in a statement.