Masjid In Vadodara Turned Into Covid Facility Amid Bed Shortage In State Due To Rising Coronavirus Cases

At the time of Coronavirus crisis, a Masjid in Gujarat was converted into a 50-bed Covid facility. The positive development has come at the time when reports surfaced claiming that ambulances were spotted lined up in long queues outside the Civil Hospital in various districts due to shortage of beds and oxygen.

Image: ANI/Twitter

The sudden spike in the number of Coronavirus cases has led to the high demand for oxygen and beds at hospitals and isolation centers. At the time of crisis, a Masjid in Gujarat was converted into a 50-bed Covid facility.

News agency ANI quoted the trustee of the mosque as saying, "Due to shortage of oxygen and hospital beds, we decided to convert the mosque into COVID facility. And what is better than the month of Ramadan to do it."

The positive development has come at the time when reports surfaced claiming that ambulances were spotted lined up in long queues outside the Civil Hospital in various districts of Gujarat including Ahmedabad and Rajkot.

During a hearing on the overall pandemic situation in the state, the Gujarat High Court noted that “over 40 ambulances were found queued up outside a hospital." Citing the media reports, the court observed that COVID-19 patients are queuing up in ambulances as beds are not available in any hospitals.

However, the state governments have defended saying admission of patients is being carried out as per the protocols which just cannot be discarded.

Gujarat for the first time on Monday crossed the 11,000-mark of Coronavirus cases in a day. As per the data released by the state Health Department, the state on Monday reported 11,403 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike so far, pushing the tally 4,15,972.

As many as 117 patients lost their lives to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the most in a day so far.