All you should know about India’s preparation to battle against the third wave of Covid-19

As India has juststepped out from the trauma of the second wave of Covid-19, experts still warn ofthird wave that could be even more dangerous than this. During the secondwave of the pandemic, a sudden hue and cry related to the shortage of hospital beds,medical oxygen etc were made, this time India is gearing up to battle againstanother wave if it comes up.

India has startedinstalling pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants across differenthospitals in the nation along with the establishment of modular hospitals with ‘ProjectO2’.

All the preparednesswork has begun under the supervision of Defence Research & DevelopmentOrganization (DRDO) and the health ministry.

According to the initialinformation released by DRDO, a total of 850 oxygen plants are being set up invarious districts of the country from the PM Cares Fund to cater to the needsof the country in its fight against the pandemic.

Dr C Satish Reddy,Secretary of DRDO, said at the Department of Science & Technology’s AzadiKa Amrit Mahotsav Discourse Series that DRDO is prepared to provide all kindsof support when the need arises.

“During the second wave,we established temporary hospitals specific to Covid-19 in many cities. Theseare modular hospitals, also called ‘flying hospitals’, and they have been madein such a way that the virus does not go out of the hospitals. If there is athird wave, all hospitals will take the load and the government is discussingthese aspects with various stakeholders,” said Dr Reddy.

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What are modularhospitals?

Basically, modularhospitals are an extension of hospital infrastructure and can be built adjacentto an existing hospital building. Project Extension Hospitals is one example ofhospitals. During the second wave of the pandemic in India, medical facilities wereoverburdened and in order to cater to the needs of the public, govt set up 50hospitals in states that were worst affected by the infection.

What is Project O2?

As India lost an overwhelming number of lives due to acute scarcity of medical oxygen, the govtnow aims at strengthening its production to ensure an adequate supply when inneed.

Under the Project O2 forIndia, a National Consortium of Oxygen is enabling the national-level supply ofcritical raw materials such as zeolites, setting up of small oxygen plants,manufacturing compressors, concentrators, and ventilators.

Moreover, expertsgroup/committee critical equipment such as oxygen plants, concentrators, andventilators from a pool of India-based manufacturers, start-ups, and MSMEs.

What are MediCABHospitals?

ModulusHousing, an Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) start-up, developedMediCAB hospitals. Under this initiative, a 100-bedded hospital extension couldbe established in up to three weeks’ time.

TheseMediCAB hospitals will be laced with all necessary equipment which includes adedicated intensive care unit (ICU) along with life support equipment andmedical devices.

Accordingto the reports, these hospitals are quite durable and can have a life of around25 years. Interestingly, MediCAB hospitals are portable and can be placed totackle a disaster anywhere in less than a week.

Where will MediCAB Hospitals be made?

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Dueto its portability, these hospitals can lessen the wedge between the medical infrastructurein tough times just like ‘second wave of Covid-19.’

The main focus of the government is to deploy these hospitals in rural and smaller towns.In order to timely implement these projects in different regions of thecountry, the office of the Principal ScientificAdviser has been actively working towards securing corporate socialresponsibility financial support.

To set up MediCAB hospitals, Modulus Housing has sought ofAmerican Indian Foundation, Mastercard, Texas Instruments, Zscaler, PNBHousing, Goldman Sachs, Lenovo, and NASSCOM Foundation.

Notably, the first batch of 100-bedded hospitals will be deployed in Bilaspur, Amravati,Pune, Jalna, Mohali, and a 20-bed hospital in Raipur. While in Bengaluru oneeach of 20, 50, and 100 bedded hospitals will be in the first phase.

In a move tofurther expand the hospitals at multiple sites in Punjab and Chhattisgarh, the Centre has also tied up with Tata Projects. They have initiated work on48-bedded modular hospitals in Gurdaspur and Faridkot. Moreover, expansion ofthe ICU at multiple hospitals in Chhattisgarh is also underway.