Srinagar: Authorities in Srinagar have added 3,000 beds in wellness centres in the district for COVID-19 patients and will add 2,000 more soon as the number of coronavirus cases in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the summer capital here, have spiked in the past three weeks.

The move comes amid apprehensions in certain quarters about the shortage of beds for COVID-19 infected patients in the city.

“While our institutional efforts are on, uninterrupted since March to contain Covid spread, for backup we’ve created 3,000 bed capacity, adding 2,000 more soon in #Srinagar. Made good use of lockdown time for these fully equipped facilities. Please rest assured on this front,” district development commissioner, Srinagar, Shahid Choudhary said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the State Executive Committee (SEC), headed by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam, has sanctioned an amount of Rs 50 crore under SDRF in favour of deputy commissioners of 20 districts of the UT for intensifying COVID containment efforts, an official spokesman said.

He said the administration has been engaged in extensive COVID containment efforts for the past five months.

Some of the most notable activities being undertaken in this regard are providing institutional quarantine facilities in all the districts, setting up and management of COVID care centres, and sampling and testing facilities at Lakhanpur, Jammu Railway Station, Qazigund, Ramban and Jammu/Srinagar airports, the spokesman said.

Press Trust of India