Army opens command hospital to assist J-K administration in fight against coronavirus

Lending its support to the Jammu and Kashmir administration in the fight against coronavirus, the Army on Sunday said it has opened its command hospital here to test samples of suspected cases.

The hospital is fully equipped to deal with patients infected with the disease and many wards have been converted into corona-specific intensive care units, commandant of the hospital Maj General S C Gupta told reporters here.

We have always emerged victorious in the wars against our enemies. This time our fight is against COVID-19 and the command hospital is fully prepared to register its victory over the disease as well, he said.

Maj Gen Gupta said the Army responded swiftly to the request of the civil administration in accordance with its tradition to assist the government to meet any eventuality.

The civil administration approached us on April 1 and without wasting any time, we started testing from the next day and so far 68 samples were tested at the command hospital, he said.

He said the molecular biology laboratory of the command hospital was recently validated and approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for testing.

Maj Gen Gupta said many wards have been transformed into corona-specific ICUs at the hospital to tackle the cases of coronavirus.

We have transformed many wards into isolation units with adequate number of ventilators, multipara monitors and oxygen concentrators. These wards with 100 bed capacity have been turned into corona-specific ICUs, he said.

The Army officer said a team of specialists has been assigned the job to handle the suspected cases while adequate number of hazard suits, N-95 masks and protective equipment have been procured for healthcare workers.