Doctors and medical professionals biggest in the state with 625 beds including 125 ICU beds—one of the largest in the country set up on 6 April.

Two other fully equipped Covid-19 Hospitals with 170 and 150 beds were set up subsequently at Kendrapara and Talcher respectively. The fourth Covid-19 Hospital with 350 beds was set up at Chandpur in Nayagarh district on July 23.

In addition, two Covid Care Centres (CCC) at Jamujhari on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar (500 beds) and Jatni (300 beds) also started functioning in July.

All the hospitals are fully equipped to deal with the disease including ventilators.

Altogether, the facilities created by SOA provide for over 2100 beds including157 ICU beds. All the facilities have been running at 80 to 90 per cent occupancy even as the number of positive cases were on the rise.

“It is a war and we are proud of our warriors who have been battling the pandemic day and night,” said Prof. Manojranjan Nayak, Founder President of SOA.

“It has not been an easy task as Coronavirus is an unknown quantity and requires knowledge, skill and understanding to deal with the infection,” Dr. Pushparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medical sciences of the SOA Deemed to be University, which has been running the six facilities,said.

Soon after the Covid-19 Hospital at Bhubaneswar started functioning, there were causes for celebration.

Doctors and nurses were jubilant when an 85-year-old woman from Jajpur district weighing only 22 kg, emerged victorious in the grim battle against Covid-19.

“Reviving corona patients with co-morbidities has been a tricky proposition but we have been winning these battles as well,” said a doctor.

The treatment of Covid-19 patients in these hospitals has received a boost with the introduction of plasma therapy. IMS and SUM Hospital, a 1600-bed hospital, has emerged as one of the most trusted and popular health care facilities in the east.The medical institute is also among the 12 such institutions chosen by the

Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) where human trial of the vaccine against Coronavirus is currently being taken up.

The hospital has also taken up advanced next generation sequencing study of SARS-CoV-2 virus in collaboration with the Delhi based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The project’s objective will be to understand the Covid-19 molecular and transmission pattern in the state.