In Chennai, the partly constructed railway hospital building in Perambur and Railway Protection Force’s mobilisation hall in Moore Market Complex (MMC) have been identified as possible locations for setting up isolation wards. These can accommodate around 350 patients.
A senior official told TOI that the decision follows an instruction of the Railway Board. The isolation wards of Southern Railway will be able to accommodate 1,274 patients.
Railways officials in New Delhi had met the Cabinet Secretary on measures to counter the threat of coronavirus. “The Railway Board directed that all zonal railways should together identify locations and create quarantine facilities with a capacity of about 20,000. Each zonal railway was directed to create facilities for at least 1,000 people. We have been asked to finish it by Monday afternoon,” a senior official said.
Immediately after this, Southern Railway officials in Chennai swung into action. Instructions were given to close all training institutes and hostels and hand them over for creating quarantine facilities.
The quarantine facilities will be divided into five categories in the Chennai division. These are railway wedding halls, quarters, training centres, training hostels and railway institutes. The chief project manager has been put in-charge of creating these quarantine facilities.
The decision comes on the heels of a patient in Chennai testing positive for coronavirus after travelling back from Oman. He has been quarantined at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai.
Senior officials said that the Railways decision is a bit late and that they should have started this work at least a week ago as the number of passengers using trains as a transit mode is higher than those taking flights.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/southern-railway-wakes-up-to-coronavirus-threat/articleshow/74543616.cms
