Senior Odisha Govt Officials Visit SOA, KIMS To Review Progress Of COVID-19 Hospitals

Bhubaneswar: Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, 5T Secretary V K Pandian and Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Sourav Garg on Sunday visited Campus-2 of SOA Deemed to be University here to review the progress in establishment of the COVID-19 Hospital.

The hospital, to be funded by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), is being set up by the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, SOA’s faculty of medical sciences.

SOA’s founder president Prof. Manojranjan Nayak briefed the officials about the progress of the project.

The state-of-the-art hospital was expected to become functional within 15 days, the officials were told.

While Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) will fund the project, IMS and SUM Hospital will run the facility providing medical expertise, critical care and other necessary support.

Besides Prof. Nayak, SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital Dr. Pushparaj Samantasinghar, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rajesh Lenka, Director of ITER Prof. Manas K. Mallick and SOA’s Dean (Students’ Welfare) Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Das were present.

On Saturday, Pandian along with Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy, Health Secretary Nikunja Dhal and DMET CBK Mohanty had visited the exclusive coronavirus ward with 500 beds for coronavirus patients being set up at KIMS with fundings from the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).

On Thursday, the Odisha government had signed two tripartite agreements with SUM and KIIMS for setting up 1000-bed state level hospitals in Bhubaneswar for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The OMC and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited MCL will provide the CSR funding for the purpose. Both the new facilities are to become functional in a fortnight. It is being touted as the biggest COVID-19 hospital in the country.