Govt to increase oxygen beds, corona care centres for tackling COVID-19: CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 17, 2021

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday said the state government will increase the oxygen supported beds to 1,000 within the next two weeks for effectively tackling the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing media persons, Sangma said after a lot of work done in the last one month, the government has been able to expand the oxygen supported beds from 350 to 750 as of today.

“We are hopeful to expand the oxygen supported beds to 1,000 in the next two weeks,” he said while informing that the state has also doubled the number of oxygen cylinders to 1,500 from 700.  

With regards to the ongoing installation of the oxygen generation plants in the state, the chief minister said upgradation in the three hospitals – Shillong civil hospital, Ganesh Das hospital and RP Chest TB hospital will be completed within the next few days.

“We will also see the (installation) oxygen plants in Tura, Jowai and Nongpoh civil hospitals being completed in the next few days. We are also schedule to complete the oxygen plants at Nongstoin, Williamnagar, Baghmara and Ampati within two weeks,” he said.

Sangma further informed that the government has also decided to set up corona care centres in different parts of the city with the help of the community.  

“This is because we are anticipating that we may require more beds. Therefore, we are trying to increase the number of beds at the locality level to cater to cases which may not need hospital services. Roughly about 300 beds will be created,” he said.

According to him, such corona care centres will be supported by the government with the required manpower and oxygen concentrators

The chief minister said the government is almost completing the 300 beds at IIM, Shillong old campus, 100 at MATI and 100 at NIFT adding “we are also looking at supporting these centres with oxygen concentrators”.