India’s largest coronavirus facility ready in Delhi’s Chattarpur

India’s largest facility for coronavirus patients, the Sardar Patel Covid Centre and Hospital, Chattarpur, is ready to open its gates. The 10,000-bed covid facility is placed inside the Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Delhi. With a 300-acre sprawling campus, the makeshift facility is set up in a 1755 sqft by 703 sqft area and will house over 10,000 coronavirus patients.

The facility is roughly the size of 20 football fields. As assured by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Twitter, the facility has been “operationalised”.

It will add bed capacity in Delhi as it struggles to deal with a caseload of Covid-19 cases, with over 74,000 infected persons since the outbreak of coronavirus.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will be in-charge of operations at the facility. ITBP was tasked by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to provide the medical staff and support to the Covid Care Centre at Radha Soami Beas Chattarpur, New Delhi as a Nodal Agency to operate it. The Delhi government has been providing all administrative support while the Radha Soami Beas Chattarpur has been providing the campus, housing and other assistance including food.

It has vast experience in dealing with Covid-19 as it was handpicked to receive the first set of passengers from Wuhan in March.

Vivek Pandey, PRO, ITBP said, “We are fully prepared to receive the first set of patients depending on the Delhi administration needs. ITBP has had a vast experience and we have ensured proper arrangements and coordination is done”.

The Covid Care facility is roughly the size of 20 football fields. (Photo: India Today)

Initially, 2000 patients will be brought in, for which a team of 160 doctors, mostly comprising of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and ITBP would be deployed on a weekly rotation and subsequent weekly quarantine basis. The number will be increased to 1000 doctors over time. Each doctor will have three to four nursing assistants to ensure fair treatment.

Saurabh Chakraborty, senior medical officer, said, “We will be staying at hotel close by and will work in shifts”.

A separate area for donning and doffing of PPE kits has been provided for all doctors and nursing staff.

Here is what the makeshift hospital will have:

• 10,200 beds in 300-acre of land, out of which 70 acres have been set aside for the quarantine facility
• 10% of the beds will have oxygen cylinders for serious patients. Critical patients will be shifted to hospitals
• The beds are biodegradable – made out of cardboard with a mattress of foam and pillows
• More than 75 ambulances will be deployed
• There will be 500 urinals, 450 bathing rooms including bio-toilets
• The facility is divided into blocks and each block consists of 100 beds. So far a chart of 88 blocks has been prepared
• The entire area will have central AC and will be under CCTV surveillance of Delhi Police
• Multiple LED screens for entertainment, 50 e-rickshaws
• Food packets, dustbin, drinking water to be available
• PVC flooring with anti-bacterial coating.

On Saturday, ITBP DGP SS Deswal inspected the facility along with South Delhi District Magistrate.

Speaking to India today at the campsite, Deshwal said, “We have deployed a team of doctors, medical staff, support and security staff as sought by the Centre. We have good coordination between different agencies. Besides ITBP, CAPF will also be sending their doctors on rotation”.

BM Mishra, South Delhi District Magistrate said, “We have ensured that there are enough doctors. There are no vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue”.

The Centre will have two segments- Covid Care Centre (CCC), where asymptomatic positive cases will be treated, and Dedicated Covid Health Care (DCHC). The CCC will have 90% beds while DCHC will have 10% beds. The DCHC will treat the cases which are symptomatic and will have an oxygen support system.

More than 1000 doctors, nurses and paramedic staff of ITBP and other CAPFs and 1000 more paramedical, assistant and security staff have been deployed at the facility to operate it smoothly.