COVID-19: DRDO adds 250 extra beds at Delhi's Sardar Vallabhbhai Hospital

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New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Sunday (May 30) added another 250 beds at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid hospital in the Delhi Cantonment area. According to a government official, the facilities at the hospital, having 750 beds now, can be further extended.

"DRDO has added another 250 beds at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel COVID hospital at Delhi Cantonment. The facilities at the hospital with its 750 beds can be further extended, in case, there is a requirement. DRDO has built many such hospitals at different places including Ahmedabad, Varanasi, and Srinagar," said officials.

DRDO added another 250 beds at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid Hospital at Delhi Cantonment. The facilities at the hospital with its 750 beds can be further extended, in case, there is a requirement: Govt Officials pic.twitter.com/nHuBmaWds5 — ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2021

Earlier on April 23, the Central government extended support to the Delhi government to manage the Covid-19 crisis and ensured the reactivation of the Defence Research and Development Organisation`s (DRDO) COVID care facility with 500 ICU beds, funded from the PM CARES fund.

The DRDO set up the facility in New Delhi with all basic facilities free of charge. As per a Central government official, the facility started operation with 250 beds initially on April 19, and another 250 beds likely to be operational by evening today.

Meanwhile, with 956 fresh positive COVID-19 cases being recorded in the last 24 hours, Delhi`s positivity rate further dropped to 1.19 per cent, which is the lowest since March 24. The national capital is witnessing a steady decline in daily coronavirus cases since the last few weeks.

According to the Delhi government`s health bulletin on Saturday, as many as 2,380 people recovered from the disease in the 24-hour period, while 122 people succumbed to the disease in the said period.

Delhi is currently under lockdown since April 19. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that the national capital will begin to unlock from Monday and said that construction activities and factories will be reopened from May 31.

(inputs from agency)