With coronavirus cases rising world over and the health and paramedic staff getting stretched thin to provide medical aid to those affected, the central government has asked various ministries to prepare a contingency plan to meet any sort of eventuality.
The Cabinet Secretary held a meeting with concerned ministries, representatives from the Army and the ITBP to review preparedness over coronavirus.
#CoronaVirusUpdate :
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) March 11, 2020
The GOM on #covid19 discussed identification of additional quarantine facilities, development of isolation wards, training of health workers & doctors being undertaken by the States/UTs.#SwasthaBharat#COVID19india pic.twitter.com/6Xyp5zGgmB
The Ministry of Home Affairs has already shot detailed guidelines to central paramilitary forces and have asked them to prepare quarantine facilities where in people showing coronavirus symptoms would be isolated.
As per the blue print of the contingency plan prepared by the Ministry, the Border Security Force has been asked to be ready with a facility to house as many as 2,000 patients showing signs of coronavirus.
"Twenty locations have been shortlisted for BSF to prepare this facility," a senior functionary in cabinet secretariat told NDTV.
As per the plan, the BSF has been asked to keep facility ready in Baikunthpur (Siliguri), Jodhpur, Indore, Chakur (MAharashtra), Kharkhan (Punjab), Hazaribagh, Srinagar, Jalandhar Tekanpur , Kolkata, Kadamtala and Agartala.
Meanwhile, the CRPF has been asked to keep 1,800 bed facility ready in Pinjore, Guwahati, Jammu, Narela, Neemuch, Kolkata, Imphal, Nagpur, Ranchi, Allahabad, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
"In whichever part of the country forces are stationed, they have to make use of their resources there. If someone shows signs of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, he can be transferred to Shivganga where the CISF has the facility," explains the functionary.
As per the contingency plan, the CISF has been asked to prepare a facility which can take care of 300 people in Shivganga near Madurai.
The NSG has been asked to have their facilities ready in Manesar and Hyderabad and the SSB in Nanded in Maharashtra.
"SSB has been given charge of facility to cater to 100 beds as of now. But all these can eventually be enhanced if the need be," adds a senior functionary in the home ministry.
The ITBP already has a 600 bed facility in Chawla and is making ready another in Greater Noida.
"We have a staff of 100 people to take care of people who are there in our facility," explains a senior ITBP officer.
According to him, doctors and paramedic staff are available 24 hours in their facility.
"We as of now have a second batch of group who have been quarantined. Mostly in this batch are foreigners. They all were evacuated from Wuhan in February 27," he adds.
According to him, 23 are from Bangladesh, six China, two each from Maldives and Myanmar and one from the USA and South Africa each.
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