Delhi COVID-19 centre, 10 times bigger than China's largest, to be opened soon

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (June 23) wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding doctors and nurses from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Army to run a 10,000-bed COVID-19 care facility being set up in south Delhi.

This COVID-19 centre is said to be 10 times bigger than the COVID care facility which was opened in China a few weeks ago, reportedly the largest in that country.

“This would be 10 times bigger than the field facility for COVID patients that was temporarily set up in China’s Leishenshan to accommodate 1,000 patients,” Hindustan Times quoted a senior Home Ministry official as saying.

The facility, which will be 1,700 feet long and 700 feet wide, will have 200 enclosures with 50 beds each. It will have the capacity to house around 10,200 patients.

The COVID care centre is being set up on the sprawling campus of spiritual organisation Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) in Chattarpur, which is located near the Delhi-Haryana border.

The care centre will be named the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre and Hospital, and is said to be the size of 15 football fields.

This makeshift COVID-19 care facility will be the largest in the city, as well as the country, so far. The setting up process is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Officials are expected to operationalise the first 2,000 beds by Thursday (June 25), the allotted deadline. The remaining beds are to be set up by July 3.

Once all 10,200 beds are operational, a total of 800 general doctors and 70 specialist doctors would be required to run the facility, apart from nearly 1,400 nurses.

The hospital would be able to provide meals for all patients admitted there, the government said.

Sources said the chief minister has also invited Shah to visit the facility, who is likely to go there on Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)