In view of the increasing requirements of facilities for critical COVID-19 patients, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is setting up a 750-bedded makeshift COVID hospital at Banaras Hindu University premises.

According to Varanasi Commissioner Deepak Agrawal, 90 per cent of work has been completed and the rest of the work will be completed within two days. "DRDO is setting up a 750-bedded makeshift COVID hospital and 90 per cent of work has been done, rest of the work will be completed in a day or 2. In the first phase, 250 ICUs will start functioning and we will start admitting patients soon," said Agrawal.

In Jammu and Kashmir, DRDO has started construction of a 500-bed COVID-19 hospital in Budgam district to ramp up medical infrastructure. For this joint initiative, the union territory administration handed over land, which was already identified for a hospital, to the DRDO for the construction of a temporary COVID-19 hospital. The hospital will have 500 oxygen beds and is likely to be completed in about 35 days' time, Ravinder Kumar, Additional Chief Engineer, DRDO informed.