Once a person begins to show even mild symptoms of Covid-19, they are immediately isolated and kept away from others to avoid further spread. As the number of asymptomatic cases start rising, there is huge demand for space—areas that can be made into isolation wards to accommodate patients or the potential patients.
Due to the lockdown, everyone is at home and there is more flexibility and freedom in using spaces to create isolation wards. Following are the institutions or areas that have been converted into quarantine facilities to accommodate large crowds of people who may need to be treated or isolated because of the coronavirus.
Schools
Schools are not functional and hence, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan offered its school buildings for setting up isolation facilities for suspected coronavirus patients. A KVS official told PTI:
Keeping in view the alarming situation created by Covid-19 in the country, it has been decided that on a formal request from any defence authority or district administration, the schools shall allow the use of classrooms of KV school buildings for temporary housing of suspected Covid-19 cases.
Railway coaches
Indian Railways with no clarity on when the services may resume, converted 5,000 coaches into isolation wards for virus patients. Keeping in mind the burden the healthcare system may have to face, the institution came to aid and shared the overwhelming number of patients.
Gurdwaras
The Delhi Gurdwara committee offered to set up isolation wards in Majnu Ka Tilla on the banks of the Yamuna for the treatment of coronavirus affected people. They promised to also provide free food to the patients and health officials.
Hostels
Hostels in Chennai of colleges like the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) and Anna University are also doing their bit by allowing their hostels to be used as quarantine facilities. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) as part of its contingency plan has issued notices to 41 institutions, both government and private, to hand over their facilities so that they can be used to quarantine potential Covid-19 patients.
JNU Stadium and Exhibition Centers in Mumbai
Other open spaces that are now idle are being utilized for the purpose of enabling patients and healthcare workers to do their jobs efficiently. Even huge stadiums and exhibition spaces like the JNU stadium and Nesco Centre Hall have opened up.