More space for patients
BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has kept 221 train coaches ready to serve as quarantine or isolation facilities for Covid-19 patients. These coaches are stationed at five stations — Bhubaneswar, Puri, Sambalpur, Titilagarh and Kantabanji — in the state.
The Covid coaches will be used after after the state government puts a requisition for the same. It hasn’t so far, railway sources said.
The Mancheswar carriage repair workshop, coaching depots in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam and other facilities of the ECoR have converted the train coaches into quarantine facilities. “Necessary medical equipment like oxygen cylinders will also be provided to the patients. Stands have been created in the coaches to hold the oxygen cylinders. A cabin in each coach has been reserved for medical and paramedical staff,” a railway officer said.