Uttarakhand: DRDO setting up COVID care hospitals in Haldwani, Rishikesh

Haldwani/Rishikesh (Uttrakhand) [India], May 9 (ANI): In view of rising cases of COVID-19, DRDO is building two COVID care hospitals in Haldwani and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.

According to the DRDO officials, the hospital in Haldwani will have 500 beds, with 375 oxygen beds and 125 ventilator beds while the one in Rishikesh will have 400 oxygen beds and 100 ventilator beds.

Earlier, DRDO had set up a 750-bedded makeshift COVID hospital at Banaras Hindu University premises and has started construction of a 500-bed COVID-19 hospital in Budgam district to ramp up medical infrastructure.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has also approved emergency use of an anti-COVID drug - 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) - developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of DRDO in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.

In a statement, the DRDO informed that clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in COVID patients. The drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from Covid-19 in the ongoing pandemic, it added.

Uttarakhand reported 8,390 new COVID-19 cases and 118 deaths in the last 24 hours, said the state control room on Saturday. With this, the case tally reached 2,38,383. (ANI)