Bengal to turn two big hospitals into corona facilities

Kolkata: Following up on Narendra Modi’s telephonic talk with Mamata Banerjee last week, the central government has sent 10,000 coronavirus testing kits to West Bengal, which has so far seen 19 Covid-19 positive cases and onedeath.

The test kits were delivered to the National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Diseases from National Institute of Virology, Pune.

While that will boost the state’s corona preparedness a bit, the government is planning to turn two big hospitals into dedicated Covid-19 facilities -- Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) in central Kolkata and the new campus of the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) in New Town.

The CMCH will be ready to receive Covid-19 patients after shifting patients with other ailments to other hospitals. It will have 1600 beds. The state’s health department is in talks with the Union Health Ministry on using CNCI as a coronavirus facility. The plan is to have nearly 700 beds there.