The East Singhbhum district administration has started scouting for health hubs to turn them into designated Covid hospitals in and around Jamshedpur as all existing facilities are full.

On Monday, the district administration identified Abadh Dental Hospital, on NH-33 on way to Ghatshila, to turn into a Covid treatment facility. Another hospital on the highway, Uma Superspeciality Hospital, was identified on Sunday and it will start functioning from Wednesday, setting aside 50 beds for Covid patients.

District civil surgeon Rajendra Nath Jha confirmed that there was a shortage of beds for treatment of Covid patients. "Tata Main Hospital, which has the largest facility for the treatment of serious Covid patients and asymptomatic patients, besides providing isolation facilities, is almost filled,” he told The Telegraph Online.

In all, Tata Main Hospital has 890 beds. Of these, 600 are on the hospital premises while the remaining 290 beds have been set up at GT hostel No 1, 3 and 4 beside Hotel Sonnet, Jha explained.

He said MGM Medical College and Hospital had a 100-bed Covid ward, but the number of patients admitted there has exceeded capacity. Jha said the medical college authorities had converted several staff quarters on the premises into the Covid treatment facilities.

The civil surgeon pointed out that other hospitals, like St John's Hospital along the NH-33 and Tata Motors Hospital where Covid patients were being treated, were also full.

"On an average, 100 people are testing positive for the coronavirus every day from the East Singhbhum district. But, as the recovery rate is 62.2 per cent the volume of patients is increasing at hospitals," Jha stated.

As of Monday afternoon, the total number of Covid cases recorded in East Singhbhum district was 2,812, of which 1,082 have recovered and 76 have died. Currently, there are 1,654 active cases in the district.

On Monday, four persons, two of them women, died at Tata Main Hospital.