Mysore/Mysuru: For Covid patients, fighting anxiety and restlessness during their stay in any quarantine centre is a big challenge, but here is a centre where patients can enjoy fresh air and sunlight together with a full calendar of activities during their stay in the treatment centre.

A full-fledged COVID Care Centre (CCC) has been established at the new Academic Bhavan of Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) near Mysore Airport in Mandakalli. CoOVID asymptomatic patients or with mild symptoms are getting admitted and treated here in this facility which has 600 beds, in the wake of rise in the number of positive persons in the district over the past one month.

On Sunday, over 100 inmates here were feeling ecstatic after their repeat tests came negative. They felt relieved and happy that they are going back to their homes very soon. Even officials working at the Centre, on hearing this news, shared some music videos through Bluetooth and advised them to celebrate throughout the day till they could get clearance from the district administration to return home.

For about an hour, all these inmates of the Centre who had just won the battle against this dreaded virus, started clapping their hands, danced and enjoyed themselves with other inmates. Popular hits from Kannada movies ‘Yajamana’ and ‘Pogaru’ blared from the stereo. Smiles creased their faces as they danced and clapped. By evening, the district administration had arranged a well-equipped vehicle to take them back to their homes. And they waved their hands to other inmates, said ‘goodbye’ to them and walked towards the vehicle, eager to join their family members, after completing their quarantine period and treatment.

Every room here in this Centre has a TV for entertainment and there are recreational facilities like chess, tennis, carrom board and other indoor games. These facilities have been set up to infuse positive energy among patients and the amenities match any good private hospitals. Each room has WiFi connectivity and each patient will be provided bandwidth for three hours per day with 12 mbps speed. 

There will be continuous supply of hot water for patients to drink and bathe, clean toilets 24×7 electricity with a 165 KVA generator. Patients get nutritious food every day as per Government guidelines and facilities for cleaning and washing have been set up.

Lt. Col. Dr. S.U. Ashok (KAS), who has been appointed as the Nodal Officer for this CCC, has made all arrangements for inmates to spend their day in a meaningful way and engages these inmates with chess, carrom, badminton and other activities.

The KSOU Academic Bhavan was inaugurated in December last year and its spacious halls in four floors have now been converted as COVID care facilities. There are 35 rooms and the facility at present has 600 beds. For doctors, nurses and care facility administration staff, there is a separate space which is marked as Green Zone.