Bhubaneswar: The second COVID hospital in Cuttack, with a capacity of 150 beds, will soon start functioning, the district administration said Sunday.
In a virtual conference, Cuttack District Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani said that this would be an addition to the Ashwini COVID Hospital in the city. The new COVID Hospital-Sadguru is likely to offer 24 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and a total of 11 dialysis beds.
“This will ensure general beds from 116 to 223. The numbers of ICU will be increased from 34 to 58. Sadguru Hospital is likely to have 11 dialysis facilities and also make avail the gynaecology ward. The occupancy of Ashwini COVID Hospital as per latest information stands at 66 per cent,” Chayani said.
He also said that the district has a dedicated COVID Health Centre at the 150-bedded GIMSAR which is running at 79 per cent occupancy. The Collector added that there are around eight COVID Care Centres with total bed capacity of 1,230 beds.
“We are trying to increase the number of COVID patients under home isolation. A total of 542 COVID asymptomatic patients are availing the facility of home isolation in the district,” he said.
The official also said that the district administration has been able to conduct a total of 69,217 sample tests by now. Majority of the positive cases are, as per the government data, have been reported from Cuttack city.
“62.18 per cent cases were reported from Cuttack city while 37.82 per cent cases were from rural areas. In the last one week, we have seen 65.77 per cent recovery rate while 33.51 per cent cases are active in the district. The mortality rate in the district now lies at 0.39 per cent,” he said.
Chayani said that the government was able to conduct more testing this week (21,486) compared to last week (17,435). He said that the SCB Medical College has conducted a total of 1,44,782 sample tests till now from 21 different districts out of which 5,174 (3.6 per cent) samples tested positive.
He said that the district administration has identified 155 villages in rural areas from which it saw COVID cases and increased surveillance in such areas and door to door campaign was organised accordingly.
“There have also been 168 plasma donations at SCB Medical College and out of this a total of 336 plasma units were prepared. A total of 287 plasma units have also been utilised till now,” he concluded.