After the alarming rate of increase of COVID-19 cases in recent times, Kolkata’s Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, which is more popularly known as Salt Lake Stadium, has been made into a COVID-19 satellite centre and vaccination centre. Salt Lake’s AMRI hospital came forward in order to set up a 50-bed facility at the stadium with the help of the West Bengal Government.
AMRI hospital, which is situated right across the road from the Salt Lake Stadium, will be managing the facility, which is estimated to be operational soon. A noteworthy feature is that this facility will not be including any Intensive Care Units (ICU) or High Dependency Units (HDU). The setup of these premises is solely for the purpose of holding up stable recovering patients to provide them isolation since the state government has allowed the use of the stadium for that purpose only.
An AMRI spokesperson said to The Times of India that this collaboration is for the patients affected by the virus in the state and are recovering. This 50-bed facility is scheduled to be operational from Friday.
The Enigmatic stadium poses as the home ground for teams like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. This will also become the third stadium in West Bengal to be made into a makeshift COVID-19 facility.
Not long ago, the Jadavpur stadium, also known as the Kishore Bharati Krirangan, was also converted into a COVID-19 shelter. Set up with the contributions of Imperial Tobacco Company (ITC), Medica Superspecialty Hospital and the Government of West Bengal, this facility contains 200 beds. When the initial wave of COVID hit, Canning Stadium and Eden Gardens have also been put out for the aforementioned cause.
With West Bengal’s active cases going up to 8.99 Lacs and the nationwide statistics reaching an alarming number of 2.07 Cr, this measure taken by hospitals along with stadiums is worth a great deal of appreciation.
