Dummy patients were brought to various COVID-19 hospitals in Gujarat in ambulances and taken to designated wards by doctors wearing the PPE suit and the availability of oxygen was also checked during a mock drill conducted on Monday to check the preparedness of health system to deal with a surge in infections.

This exercise was conducted as per the Centre's direction.

Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel inspected the mock drill at Gandhinagar civil hospital and assessed if the hospital is prepared to handle a high influx of patients.

Patel enquired about the availability of medicines, the functioning of ventilators and the PSA Oxygen plant at the civil hospital. He also took stock of the availability of beds and the functioning of the oxygen supply line from the PSA plant to beds in wards. "As directed by the Centre, we have organised a mock drill at all the designated COVID-19 hospitals across the state to ensure medical equipment and other infrastructure, such as ventilators, oxygen plants, concentrators, BiPAP machines, were working properly. This exercise is also aimed at finding loopholes so that they can be plugged," Patel told reporters.

He said the state government has sought 3 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the Centre to vaccinate people who have not yet taken the booster dose.

During the mock drill, the availability of oxygen at each bed in the designated COVID-19 wards in various hospitals in the state was also checked.

As per state government data, Gujarat has 2,013 active cases of COVID-19, including seven on ventilator support.

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