Gujarat 'beautifully' prepared to fight Covid, says Amit Shah after visiting upcoming 900-bed Covid-19 facility

Meanwhile, incidents of shortage of oxygen, ICU beds and hours of waiting for ambulance were reported from across the state

The number of active Covid-19 cases crossed one lakh mark in Gujarat on Friday with the state reporting 13,804 fresh positive cases in the last 24 hours. The death toll in the state reached 6,019 as 142 infected persons passed away. These were the highest single-day counts in the state, which is reeling under acute medical infrastructure collapse.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited a 950-bed covid-19 hospital set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with the help of the state government. He said that the hospital will be functional from Saturday. Shah said that this hospital will have 250 ICU beds which will be opened for residents of Ahmedabad residents from tomorrow.

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"Today, I visited the Covid hospital with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. This is a beautiful hospital and has beautiful arrangements... this hospital, which comes under my constituency, will help the city residents and in the coming days ICU beds will be available. In this hospital, most beds have oxygen and all testing facilities right from CT scan," Shah told reporters.

He said that he held a review meeting on the Covid-19 situation in the state with government officers in which Rupani and Patel were also present. "The Gujarat government is quite beautifully prepared to face it. Perhaps, Gujarat has the highest number of oxygen beds in the country... the number of ICU beds is also quite high," Shah claimed.

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"However," he added, "Keeping the future in mind, with the help of Tata Trust, a second 1200-bed hospital will be set up at a helipad in Gandhinagar that will have 600 ICU beds with the assistance of DRDO."

Meanwhile, incidents of shortage of oxygen, ICU beds and hours of waiting for 108 ambulance services to take patients to Covid-19-designated hospitals were reported from across the state. In Rajkot's Gondal town, three hospital managements threatened that they will have to shut hospitals for lack of oxygen. Leader of the Opposition in state assembly Paresh Dhanani tweeted that the state government failed to arrange facilities despite having time in its hand last year.