Assam to send mid-day meals to children at home during lockdown period
Though the coronavirus epidemic is yet to grip the state, Assam is to use stadiums as hospitals if there's an outbreak
Guwahati: Forty lakh students in Assam are not going to school on account of the 21-lockdown in force but their mid-day meal will come to them.
Assam’s chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said the meals will be delivered at home to all students below 14 years of age right through to the end of the lockdown.
While the meals will mitigate the discomfort of people in forced confinement, Assam is preparing for a flood of coronavirus positive cases in the coming days, although it has not had a positive case as yet.
Accordingly, the health department has started work on converting stadiums into field hospitals to quarantine coronavirus patients. Some 2000 beds can be accommodated in the two stadiums being scouted: Sarusajai and Tarun Ram Phookan Indoor stadiums.
In addition, six full-fledged hospitals will be dedicated entirely to coronavirus patients.
Assam presently has 156 ventilators, and 30 more are being added at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital.