The Madhya Pradesh government will set up 360 ICU beds for children in hospitals across the state as part of its preparations for the third wave of COVID-19, minister Vishwas Kailash Sarang said on Monday. Health experts recently warned of a third wave of the Coronavirus infection in the country, which could also affect children.

On Sunday, state medical education minister Sarang held a meeting via video conference with deans and hospital superintendents of various government medical colleges and other senior officials to review the preparations to be made to tackle the third wave. "We deliberated on provisions to be made for dealing with the possible third wave of COVID-19 and since it could affect children, we will be setting up 360 ICU beds for kids in various medical colleges of the state," Sarang told Express.

As part of the plan, a 50-bed dedicated ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for children will be set up in Bhopal's Hamidia Hospital, which is associated with the Government Gandhi Medical College, the minister said. He also directed officials to make available sufficient stock of medicines, injections and consumables in these ICUs. The minister also said 1,000 oxygen concentrators will be made available in 13 government medical colleges of MP.

During the meeting, it was also decided to add 1,267 beds, including 767 ICU/HDU (high dependency units) beds, in state-run hospitals in the first phase of preparation for the third wave of COVID-19, he said. The minister directed officials to immediately procure all necessary equipment for setting up these facilities. Funds for purchasing these items will be provided to the medical colleges soon, he added. On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh reported 11,051 new COVID-19 cases and 86 fatalities, taking the tally of infections to 6,71,763 and the death toll to 6,420, as per official data.