India has for the first time in 167 years decided to close its railways amid measures to contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earlier imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25, when Indian Railways took the unprecedented move of suspending passenger trains across the country until April 14. Now, the railway network has decided to convert as many as 20,000 old train carriages into isolation wards for patients as the virus spreads.
The network, which is the world's fourth-largest rail operator and India's biggest employer, already operates 125 hospitals across the nation, so has the expertise to expand into mobile beds.
A transportation official said that the first 5,000 isolation units will be ready within two weeks, although thousands of them can be prepared within 48 hours if necessary.
Each sanitized carriage will be able to accommodate up to 16 patients, alongside a nurses' station, a doctor's cabin, and space for medical supplies and equipment.
The trains, once ready, will be sent to any location that might be facing a hospital bed crunch due to a potential spike in positive cases.
Local health authorities will assign government doctors, paramedics, nurses, and volunteers to the trains.
Take a look at the undergoing work to turn the railway carriages into isolations wards for patients:
The Indian government has also instructed railway factories to assess the feasibility of manufacturing hospital beds, stretchers, medical trolleys, masks, sanitizers, aprons, and medical apparatus such as ventilators for use in railway hospitals and other government hospitals.
India reported more than 4,000 injuries and 109 deaths, while about 300 people recovered.
According to CNN, the Indian Railways, normally, runs more than 20,000 passenger trains a day, on long-distance and suburban routes, from 7,349 stations across India.
The lockdown has put nearly 67,368 kilometers of track out of use -- enough to circle the equator 1.5 times -- and left thousands of passenger trains sitting idle. Freight trains, or goods trains as they are called in India, remain operational.
Railway bosses have instructed each of India's 16 railway zones to identify non-air conditioned carriages that are no longer in operation on passenger routes to turn into hospitals, and have them ready for use in case of an emergency.
The Corona epidemic continues to hit the world fiercely, with deaths exceeding 74,000, 1.3 million infections.
Follow the latest news on Google News
