Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman Dr. G Satheesh Reddy has informed that work is on to set up a 450-bed hospital in Lucknow, a 750-bed hospital in Varanasi, and a 900-bed hospital in Ahmedabad amid the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. As the construction of COVID-19 care hospital at Awadh Shilp Gram in Lucknow is on a war footing, the officials there on Tuesday said that the facility will have ICU wards with ventilators along with oxygen beds, as per a defense ministry statement.

Pucca structure is being used to build the wards of the hospital, which has all state-of-the-art medical facilities under one roof. DRDO has set up a facility in New Delhi with all basic facilities free of charge. The facility set up by DRDO in Delhi has all oxygen beds, a large number of ventilators, zero charges, basic testing facilities and air-conditioning, as per WHO standards.

It has also developed SpO2 (Blood Oxygen Saturation) supplemental Oxygen Delivery which can be used for moderate COVID patients for oxygen flow therapy and soldiers posted at extreme high-altitude areas. The COVID-19 situation in India has been worsening amid the second wave of coronavirus infections. For the past four days, the country has been reporting in excess of two lakh coronavirus infections and over 1,000 related deaths on a daily basis.