Coronavirus: 20 isolation railway coaches set up in Bhopal

In a bid to address the bed crunch in hospitals amid rising COVID-19 cases, the West Central Railways has deployed 20 isolation coaches at Bhopal station, which will become operational from Sunday. "In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 20 Covid Care Coaches have been arranged by the Indian Railways, which will have 320 beds. These coaches will start functioning fully from April 25," Minister for Railways Piyush Goyal informed in a tweet on Saturday morning.

An official of Bhopal division of West Central Railways said these coaches have been deployed at platform number-6 of Bhopal railway station. These are only isolation coaches and oxygen support system is not installed in them, officials said.

COVID-19 patients who need oxygen support cannot be admitted in these coaches, they added. Madhya Pradesh on Friday reported 13,590 COVID-19 cases, which took the caseload in the state to 4,72,785 including 4,937 fatalities. Bhopal reported 1,753 fresh cases, pushing its infection count to 77,158, including 697 fatalities.