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Monday, February 17, 2025
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India to use 500 railway carriages as wards in Delhi

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Daily US Times: As coronavirus cases surge in India, the country is to convert another 500 railway carriages to create 8,000 more beds for coronavirus patients in Delhi.

Amit Shah, Home Minister of India, announced a package of new emergency measures for Delhi, including a rapid increase in testing for Covid-19. Nursing homes will also be requisitioned.

Mr Shah met Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the crisis.

India’s daily number of confirmed new cases has reached almost 12,000.

According to the offical figures, more than 320,922 people cases positive for coronavirus, putting India fourth in the world – after the US, Brazil and Russia – in the pandemic, and Johns Hopkins University data shows 9,195 people have died in the country.

India’s capital is the third worst-hit state in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

It reports that Delhi’s bed capacity across government and private hospitals for Covid-19 patients stands at 9,698, of which 4,248 beds are vacant.

Mr Kejriwal’s government plans to use 77 banquet halls and 40 hotels as makeshift hospitals. Now 500 railway carriages will also used as makeshift hospitals.

India began converting railway carriages into quarantine or isolation wards in April, when large parts of the railway network were suspended owing to the pandemic.

Last month the national government announced plans to end a national lockdown that began on 25 March.

Plane and road traffic increased as restrictions started to ease, and many businesses and workplaces reopened. Markets are crowded again.

The lockdown has imposed huge economic costs on India, throwing millions of people out of work, especially migrant workers in precarious, meagrely-paid jobs. Food supply chains were also put at risk.

You may read: How coronavirus changed the big fat Indian wedding

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