IOC opens 500-bedded Covid care centre in Panipat

New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Sunday opened a 500-bedded Covic Care hospital in Panipat district of Haryana as it steps up efforts to augment the nation's healthcare facilities to fight the world's worst pandemic outbreak. IOC, which runs an oil refinery and petrochemical complex at Panipat, will also supply oxygen for the facility, an official statement said.

"The temporary Covid hospital near the refinery in Panipat has been named Guru Tegh Bahadur Sanjivani Covid Hospital," it said.

The job of building this hospital started on April 29. "The hospital will cater to patients from nearby districts such as Panipat, Karnal, Sonipat etc, after getting the referral from the respective district civil hospital," it said.

Over 275 healthcare professionals will be manning this hospital including government doctors, doctors on internship, nurses and nursing students.

The hospital is equipped with a dedicated oxygen pipeline of 15 tonnes per day capacity. IOC has also arranged for the stay of healthcare personnel who will work at the hospital in nearby hotels for a period of six months.

Hospitals in the country are getting overwhelmed amid the world's fastest-surging outbreak. Over 4,000 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours for the fourth time in a week, while new infections at 3,11,170 were the lowest single-day rise in more than three weeks.

IOC laid the pipeline for supplying medical oxygen to the Covid hospital at a cost of Rs 1.65 crore. The firm is also spending Rs 1.84 crore to provide 50 rooms in nearby hotels for the stay of doctors.

The hospital at Panipat was opened by Union Oil and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal.

While companies in the oil and steel sector have stepped up supply of medical oxygen for Covid care as well as procured oxygen concentrators and cryogenic tankers for transporting it, jumbo Covid care facilities have been set up at 15 places by the PSUs in these sectors, Pradhan said.

While about 8,500 oxygenated beds will be made available for the treatment of Covid patients at facilities set up by steel sector PSUs, the petroleum sector will provide 2,000 beds facilities at their refineries in Bina in Madhya Pradesh, Panipat in Haryana, Kochi in Kerala, Bathinda in Punjab and Chennai.

The minister said IOC will provide free vaccination to all the stakeholders (including employees of the petrol pumps, people engaged in the LPG distribution) as well as the people living near the Panipat refinery.

He also announced that the firm will make a Rs 100 crore cluster of low-cost housing for the workers in Panipat.

Haryana Chief Minister said that the state government has taken a number of steps to fight the second wave of Covid-19.

Stating that oxygen availability was a major constraint in the treatment of large number of people suffering from the disease, he said the setting up of Covid hospitals near the oxygen producing centres, like refinery and steel plants, is going to mitigate the problem.

He said that a 500-bedded centre has been inaugurated in Hisar near the Steel plant. ANZ MKJ