Joining the fight against the coronavirus, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has decided to convert its sprawling Trauma Centre building into a COVID-19 hospital.

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Preparations are underway to convert the facility, which provides treatment mostly to victims of road accidents, into a dedicated COVID-19 hospital, official sources said, adding that initially, it will have around 260 beds. The AIIMS administration is likely to make an official announcement in this regard very soon. "The entire trauma casualty and the emergency is being shifted to the AIIMS main emergency. Most of the patients have already been shifted to multiple wards at the main AIIMS hospital," a source said.

The Trauma Centre currently has 242 beds and 18 more are being added to it. Of the total number of beds, there are about 50 ICU beds and around 30-40 beds in the high-dependency unit. It has around 70 ventilators. "The capacity can be ramped up, depending on the requirement," a source said. The AIIMS has set up a task force to develop a management protocol for COVID-19 and constituted several committees to be able to respond to the challenges that may prop up in the coming days due to the rising number of coronavirus cases.

The premier hospital has already closed its OPD, including speciality services and all new and follow-up patients' registration, from March 24 till further orders. The AIIMS had earlier decided to temporarily suspend the routine walk-in OPD registration of patients from March 23 as part of its efforts to redirect its resources to control the coronavirus outbreak. Further, the hospital has been postponing all non-essential elective procedures and surgeries, and the administration has directed for only emergency life-saving surgeries.

The number of coronavirus cases crossed the 1,000-mark in India on March 29 while the death toll rose to 27, according to the Union Health Ministry.