Coronavirus: Assam shelves temporary hospital plan, targets

The Assam government on Monday said it has shelved a plan to construct five temporary hospitals for COVID-19 patients, and in its place set a target of creating 1,000 ICU beds at its permanent facilities across the state.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the decision was taken considering the current situation in which permanent infrastructure in the healthcare sector needs to be strengthened in the state.

"The fear of coronavirus is there in the state at this moment. So we are focussing on increasing the strength at permanent hospitals," he said at a press conference here.

On March 26, Sarma had announced that the state was planning to build five temporary hospitals with 300 beds each across the state to treat COVID-19 positive patients.

Sarma, who is also the state Finance minister, informed that the government has collected Rs 99.56 crore as donations in Asom Arogya Nidhi account for creating the temporary structures, but it will stop collecting it after the amount touches Rs 101 crore.

"Now our target is to create 1,000 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in our own hospitals. Many hospital buildings are coming up at the moment in the districts. In this way, we will have our own permanent facilities," he added.

The Central government is likely to provide Rs 168 crore to the state for its fight against the novel coronavirus, Sarma said.

"Therefore, with Rs 100 crore from Asom Arogya Nidhi, we will have Rs 268 crore in total. It will be sufficient to augment our existing facilities," he added.

According to the Assam Health and Family Welfare Department's daily bulletin on Sunday, there are 440 ICU beds and 303 ventilators in government and private hospitals for treating COVID-19 positive cases.

The state has tested a total of 4,865 samples so far for novel coronavirus, of which 34 have been found positive and one has died, while 18 have been cured and released from hospitals.