Delhi’s Commonwealth Games Indoor Stadium Converted Into 600 Bedded COVID Care Centre

New Delhi: Delhi, the national capital is among the top three worst-hit states/union territories by the Novel Coronavirus. As on July 2, Delhi has close to 90,000 COVID-19 cases of which over 27,000 are still active. Amid the continuous surge in Coronavirus cases, the Delhi government is continuously working towards expanding its healthcare infrastructure by converting major establishments like banquet halls, hotels, and spiritual centres to COVID care centres. In line with it, now Commonwealth Games (CWG) village indoor stadium has been converted into a 600 bedded COVID care centre.

Doctors For You, a pan India humanitarian organisation that focuses on providing medical care to the vulnerable communities during crisis and non-crisis situation, emergency medical aid to people affected by natural disaster, conflicts and epidemics has been given the task of establishing a stadium turned COVID care centre. Doctors For You will be providing doctors and nurses and take complete care of the operations of the centre.

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Detailing on the infrastructure and how different areas of the stadium have been utilised, Dr Ravi Kant Singh, Founder of Doctors For You, told NDTV,

For now, we have taken charge of only indoor stadium and are setting up around 600 beds which can be increased as and when need arise. The central badminton hall will have over 350 beds for men; table tennis hall consisting of over 120 beds has been dedicated to women and young children; separate 60 beds have been reserved for high dependency patients who require constant monitoring and supervision. All the halls have been divided into compartments as they will be opened in a phased manner.

Each bed will have a bell attached to it. The patient can ring it in case of any need and doctors and nurses will be alerted following which the team will address the needs. Along with this, almost 80 per cent beds will be attached with oxygen supply and all the patients will be under continuous CCTV monitoring.

We have constructed almost 80 makeshift toilets for males and the existing 20 toilets inside the main building are kept for females and children. Also, there are 30 bathing areas for men and 10 bathing areas for women, informed Dr Singh.

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Mr Singh also told that the centre doesn’t offer ICU care hence only mild to moderately sick patients will be admitted here. He said,

Patients with an oxygen saturation level between 88-95 per cent and a respiratory rate of more than 25 per minute will be admitted in this facility. However, if any patient’s health deteriorates and develops severe symptoms, he/she will be shifted to Lok Nayak Hospital (LNJP). We have one ambulance for 100 beds.

On an average, 12 doctors and 24 nurses will be available for every 100 beds. Since medical staff will work on a rotational basis, Doctors For You plans to hire 80 doctors, 150 nurses and over 200 other support staff to run the COVID care centre for the next three months.

A separate area has been dedicated to doctors and nurses so that they can stay there and, in an effort, to ensure they don’t have to go out for food, there will be a 24×7 kitchen.

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On Wednesday (July 1), Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manisha Sisodia took stock of the newly built facility which is expected to open its gates for patients from Monday (July 6). After the visit, the Chief Minister addressed the media and said,

A massive expansion of the number of COVID-19 beds is underway in Delhi. As compared to the last month, the number of cases in Delhi is now decreasing and the situation seems to be getting under control and stable. I hope and pray that the facilities created and the beds installed across the city are not required, but even if they are, we are not lacking in our efforts. In case there is a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, we are ready to deal with it.

Mr Singh informed that the work is still underway and once completed, Doctors For You will take 48 hours to sanitise the area, check all the facilities are in place and functional and invite doctors and nurses. As per the plan, the COVID care centre will start with 150 beds starting July 6. Once 80 per cent of the 150 beds are full, the second chamber will be opened.

As of now, the facility has been created for three months but depending on how the pandemic evolves the decision will be taken to extend its operations. For the same, we are exploring ways to make it energy efficient and thinking of switching to solar energy. But nothing has been finalised yet, said Mr Singh.

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According to CM Kejriwal, the Coronavirus situation in Delhi is improving but that doesn’t call for complacency. In a media briefing on July 1, CM said,

It was predicted that on June 30, Delhi will have 1 lakh cases of Coronavirus of which around 60,000 will be active cases and Delhi will require 15,000 beds. Whereas, today, Delhi has 26,000 active cases and 5,800 beds are occupied.

The Chief Minister gave the credit to doctors, nurses, citizens, non-governmental organisations and everyone who helped in containing the spread of the virus.

As per the daily state health bulletin of July 1, for COVID-19 patient management, Delhi has 15,242 hospital beds of which 5,892 are occupied and 9,350 are vacant. Delhi also has dedicated COVID care centres and COVID health centres with 7,869 and 544 beds respectively. While 1,745 beds are currently being used in COVID care centre, 225 are occupied in COVID health centre.

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