Railway coaches to be turned into isolation wards in Mysuru

Mysuru: With coronavirus cases poised to accelerate in the next few days, South Western Railways has begun to convert 120 coaches into isolation facilities for Covid-19 suspected cases.

Second class sleeper coaches that are more than 15 years old are being turned into isolation wards.

Each coach has nine cubicles, each with seven seats. With the middle berths removed and curtained off, each cubicle can accommodate one person. There will be one table and a dustbin in each cubicle.

In each coach, one cubicle will be reserved for paramedical personnel.

Mosquito nets will be fixed to the windows. One cubicle in each coach will be converted into a bathroom with soaps, buckets and mugs. There will be a santiser station too.

Some 40-50 employees of the workshop are working in shifts -- maintaining enough social distance – to convert all the coaches into a 960-bed isolation facility in ten days.

Mysuru deputy commissioner Abhiram G Shankar, 230 primary contacts of all 21 people who have tested positive in Mysuru district have been traced. Once a patient has tested positive for Covid 19, 12 days from his date of testing positive, his primary contacts will be tested.

Also, 53 people who have returned from the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Old Delhi. They are being quarantined and their tests are underway.