The Government Medical College in Ernakulam, a 500-bed facility, is being converted into the State’s first COVID-19 treatment centre.
On Sunday, the hospital authorities started shifting patients to other hospitals. Nearly 90% of the patients have either been shifted or discharged, and only the seriously-ill patients remain at the hospital. They will be shifted once their treatment in other hospitals are ensured.
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The wards at GMC in Ernakulam are being cleaned.
As most of the COVID-19 positive cases are reported at the airport here and brought to the hospital, it was decided to convert the hospital into a treatment centre. Besides, the possibility of risk to other patients in the hospital increased with more cases getting admitted in the isolation ward.
Ernakulam District Collector had invoked Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to convert the hospital into a treatment centre.
The dialysis unit and emergency OP alone would function at GMC.