Lockdown bought us time to prepare for fight against COVID-19, says GIMS Director Brig. Dr. Rakesh Gupta

In an interview with Ten News, Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) Director Brig. Dr. Rakesh Gupta, appreciated the decision of lockdown saying that the lockdown helped buy time for the preparations to fight COVID-19 as there were no prior preparations to fight the deadly disease.

“The lockdown gave us time to increase our diagnostic capacity, beds in isolation wards, and other resources.” Dr. gupta said.

GIMS which is based in Greater Noida is the only Government medical institute in the Gautam Budh Nagar district and it has played a pivotal role in combating the disease in the district.

Dr. Gupta said, the first case in the district was reported on 16th March, since then the hospital has been scaling the facilities. The hospital started with 10 beds isolation ward, went on to 20 beds and currently possess 150 beds isolation ward.

“The district’s readiness to fight the disease lies in the fact that the district is number one in recovery rate in the whole country.” said Dr. Gupta when asked about district-level preparations.

Taking about necessary precautions, Dr. Gupta suggested common precaution methods such as social distancing, wearing masks in public places and even in home if one is showing symptoms, washing hands for minimum 20 seconds, drinking warm water in morning and evening. He also said that people with co-morbidities should take extra precaution.

Lastly, he appreciated the efforts of district administration, Greater Noida and Noida Authority’s CEO and appealed to follow all the guidelines of district administration even when the lockdown ends.

The interview was taken by Prof. Dr. Siddharth Gupta, Senior Healthcare Advisor at Anti Corona Task Force.