MCL sets up 2nd 150-bed COVID-19 hospital in Odisha

New Delhi: An exclusive 150-bedded Coronavirus (COVID-19) hospital set-up by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) at Talcher was dedicated to the people of the state on Monday by Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik.

The hospital has been formally inaugurated by Patnaik, along with Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan, through video conferencing from New Delhi. MCL's CMD BN Shukla, along with functional Directors, also joined through video conferencing from the company's headquarters at Sambalpur. After a 500-bedded COVID-19 hospital set up in Bhubaneswar, the Talcher hospital will be the second COVID-19 facility readied by MCL in technical collaboration with IMS & SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar.

150-bedded #COVID19 Hospital in Talcher #Odisha today dedicated to people by Hon. CM in the presence of Hon. Coal Minister & Hon. PNG & Steel Minister through video conferencing. This is 2nd COVID19 Hospital set-up by MCL in technical collaboration with IMS &SUM Hospital, BBSR. pic.twitter.com/5PFZ1oTyGc

— Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (@mahanadicoal) April 20, 2020

The COVID-19 hospital, which has been set-up at MCL's Mahanadi Institute of Medical Sciences & Research at NSCH Campus, Talcher, has isolation wards with a capacity of 150 beds, including a six-bed ICU facility, spread over two floors with a state-of-the-art laboratory on a separate floor.

Besides the funding of the hospital, MCL will also provide free meals to the patients at the COVID-19 hospital in Talcher. Earlier, a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the COVID-19 hospital was finalised by Manoj Mohanty (Collector) Angul on behalf of the government of Odisha, Dr Pushparaj Samantsinghar on behalf of SUM Hospital and MG Brahmapurkar (General Manager), Jagannath Area, for MCL.

Being at the forefront in the fight against COVID-19, MCL has also prepared a 54-bedded medical facility in Jharsuguda district of Odisha.

Sanitization operations through 'fog canon,' fire tenders, tankers etc are being conducted by production areas of MCL spread over Sundergarh, Jharsuguda and Angul districts of the state. The PSU has also undertaken the distribution of facial masks and sanitisers among people in the peripheral localities.

MCL has distributed 3.7 lakh facial masks among people.