La Martiniere for Boys has offered its campus to Belle Vue Clinic for a Covid-19 vaccination centre. This will help the hospital increase the number of Covid beds on its premises.

The school has decided to give three floors in the Martin block to Belle Vue.

This will enable the hospital to increase the number of beds for Covid patients by 96, authorities at Belle Vue, who were conducting the vaccination in the 7th and 8th floor of their premises, said.

Belle Vue currently has 230 beds for patients with Covid-19, including 46 critical care beds.

Belle Vue Clinic. Telegraph picture

“We were administering 600 vaccines a day and with this space made available, we will be able to keep up that number and simultaneously increase our bed strength in the hospital by another 96. The government has allowed us to increase the licensed bed strength by 40 per cent,” said Pradip Tondon, CEO, Belle Vue Clinic.

A Belle Vue team inspected the La Martiniere premises on Friday.

“Belle Vue had requested us for space for setting up their vaccination centre. They told us that if they could shift the vaccination centre from

their premises it would give them space to increase the number of beds in the hospital,” said Supriyo Dhar, the secretary of the La Martiniere schools. “The bishop (Reverend Paritosh Canning) immediately agreed because it is for such a noble cause,” Dhar said.

The space that the school has allotted to Belle Vue includes six classrooms and one hall in the junior department of the boys’ school.

The entry and exit for the vaccination centre will be through the school’s Moira Street gate.

“(For the additional beds) we are expecting permission from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation by next week and once we get that, we would take seven to 10 days to start admitting patients,” said Tondon.

With the increase in Covid-19 cases, the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission in a meeting with private hospitals had asked them to explore options of increasing the bed facility. Shifting the vaccination centre to a different premise was one suggestion of the commission.

“We would be providing air-conditioned rooms and Wi-Fi facility because we were told that the vaccine administration requires air conditioned facility. We are doing this free of cost and when doctors are doing so much during this time this is our contribution,” said Dhar.

South Point

South Point School has decided to make its premises at Mandeville Gardens available for setting up a walk-in swab collection centre for RT-PCR tests. The facility will open for the public on Monday from 9.30am to 3pm and have a collection capacity of about 120 samples a day.

The facility is being set up in association with South Point Ex-students’ Association and CII Young Indians Kolkata. Tests will cost Rs 500 each and reports will be available by the end of the next day.

“Since classes are presently being held online, we felt this would be a good utilisation of our space that is lying vacant,” said Krishna Damani, trustee, South Point Education Society and president of the alumni association.