Shimla, May 10 (PTI) As many as 14 more Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants are being set up in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Monday, as the state battles a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chairing a meeting here to review the Covid-19 situation, Thakur said the Union government had recently sanctioned 14 more PSA oxygen plants for the hill state.

These plants are being established at Civil Hospital Palampur, Zonal Hospital Mandi, Civil Hospital Ghumarwin, Dr. Radhakrishan Government Medical College Hamirpur, Ayurvedic Hospital Reckong Peo, and Civil Hospital Ratti, he said.

Other facilities in the list are Civil Hospital Rampur, Dr Y S Parmar Government Medical College Nahan, Civil Hospital Sarahan, Regional Hospital Kullu, Deen Dayal Upadhayay Hospital Shimla, Zonal Hospital Dharamshala, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College Ner Chowk, and IGMC Shimla.

Work on all these plants will be completed in a time-bound manner, he added.

The chief minister said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare provided 75,000 PPE kits and 75,000 N-95 masks to the state which would reach Shimla by Tuesday evening.

Presently, there are a total of 3,670 hospital beds available in the state out of which 1,819 were occupied, he said.

There are about 244 ICU beds, and 1,804 oxygenated beds (349 unoccupied) in the state, he added.

The state government is making efforts to increase the bed capacity keeping in view the sharp surge of Covid-19 cases, he said.

Thakur said the bed capacity would be enhanced by 1100 within a few days by expediting work on makeshift hospitals.

Additional bed capacity of 200 each was being created at Pandoga in Una district, Solan and Mandi, whereas additional bed capacity of 500 was being created at Paraur in Kangra district.

The makeshift hospitals have already been made functional at Nalagarh with 60 beds, Palakwah in Una district with 100 beds, IGMC Shimla with 23 beds and Tanda with 66 beds, he said, adding 100 beds would also be made available in medical college Ner Chowk in the next two days.

The state government has also decided to provide health kit to the Covid patients which will have kaadha, chyawanprash, face masks, sanitiser, thermometer, multi vitamin tables and Ayush immunity booster, he added.

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