Mohali administration, CU collaborate to establish Punjab's largest COVID-19 isolation facility

The SAS Nagar administration announced that the district administration and Chandigarh University (CU) set up Punjab's largest COVID-19 isolation facility at Gharuan here on Wednesday.

The facility comprises 1,000-bed quarantine facility and separate isolation facility for doctors and paramedical staff, as per a press statement.

Mohali Deputy Commissioner (DC) Girish Dayalan said, "The Punjab government is taking all precautions and the district administration Mohali is gearing itself to meet any emergency situation in future."

He added that the CU-isolation facility is part of the state government's contingency plan to prepare isolation facilities well in advance so that the administration can take care to isolate patients with the quickest response time, in case the number of infected cases rises.

"We are thankful to the management and staff of Chandigarh University that they have created the facility in a very short time," said the DC Mohali.

Dayalan further said, "The district administration Mohali is running CU-AID campaign along with Chandigarh University in Kharar and nearby villages where the university team is distributing cooked meals twice a day to more than 2,000 people, the medical team of university is distributing free hand sanitisers and face masks to the poor and needy."

The DC urged other educational institutions to also lend a hand in combating the outbreak. "Like Chandigarh University, we request other educational institutions and organizations to come forward and extend their help to administration and government in the time of crisis," he said.

Kharar SDM Himanshu Jain inspected the isolation facility along with his team and had a look at the preparations made by the university.

"We have inspected the CU-isolation facility at Gharuan and found that every emergency facility required for the COVID-19 patients is in place, which includes ICU Units, medicines, PPE kits for the medical team and ambulance facility to shift the patients," said the Kharar SDM.

While giving details about the facility, University Chancellor, Satnam Singh Sandhu, said, "We have prepared CU-isolation facility under the guidance of Punjab government and it comprises 1,000-bed quarantine facility, 200-bed medical centres, OPD for patients and protection kits including face masks patients."

He further said, "COVID-19 dedicated facility has round the clock medical team comprising doctors, 50 paramedical staff, who will be looking after the patients and 24x7 ambulance facility to shift the patients."

Sandhu also said that the CU-isolation facility has basic medical facilities such as oxygen cylinders and other biomedical equipment, and the quarantine facility can be further scaled up for 5,000 patients.