Odisha Govt announces 100-bed COVID-19 hospital at Burla's VIMSAR

In order to cater to the growing need of the coronavirus patients in Western Odisha, the Government on Saturday, September 5, announced to set up a new 100-bed COVID-19 hospital with around 20 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds at Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla in Sambalpur district.

The announcement was made by Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy who, along with Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, visited Sambalpur and VIMSAR on Saturday.  During the visit, the Chief Secretary also reviewed the COVID pandemic situation and arrangements for the treatment of Corona patients in VIMSAR.

"Presently operating isolation ward in VIMSAR will be developed to one 100-bed COVID hospital with ICU facilities," said Tripathy while assuring that this will be made functional very shortly within 10 days.

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Earlier, the state government has decided to set up new COVID-19 hospitals and expand the additional facility in the existing hospitals in three districts including Koraput, Cuttack, and Khordha. This decision has been taken on the direction of the Technical Expert Committee.

COVID-19 situation in Odisha

Odisha reported 3,543 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, taking the state tally to 1,20,221, a Health Department official said. Seven more persons lost their lives, following which the death toll rose to 538 and most of the new cases were reported from the Khurda district where 878 people tested positive, its highest single-day spike, he said.

Mayurbhanj reported a total of 326 new cases, followed by 295 cases detected in Cuttack. New cases were reported from all the 30 districts of the state, the official said.

There are a total of 29,229 active cases in the state at present, with 90,331 recoveries. Khurda district reported two of the latest deaths, while one patient each died in Cuttack, Bolangir, Ganjam, Malkangiri and Sundergarh, the official said. So far the state has tested over 20.48 lakh samples for COVID-19. 

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(With inputs from ANI)