Jammu, April 23: After the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council administered new indoor sports complex at Maulana Azad Stadium, Jammu and Indoor Stadium at Bhagwati Nagar, they handed it over to the J&K UT Health Department to increase the capacity of quarantine beds amid coronavirus outbreak.
Healthcare Isolation Facilities, the autonomous sports body, has also offered other sports training centres in different districts of UT if the need arises in the future.
Sources said on April 13, 2020, the Health Department had written a letter to Divisional Commissioner, Jammu regarding the requirement of more buildings for setting up of Quarantine/COVID-19 Healthcare Isolation Facilities.
They added that the Health Department had also identified some of the buildings which included Yatri Niwas Bhawan, Bhagwati Nagar, new indoor sports complex, M A Stadium and indoor stadium, Bhagwati Nagar.
The request was then forwarded to the Sports Council and the next day both the sports centres were handed over to the Health Department to be used for the public health care amid deadly Coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
Sources, further, said although no COVID-19 patient has been shifted to these centres but all necessary equipment and mattresses have already been provided there so that there can be no delay in starting of isolation facilities.
Naseem Javed Choudhary, Secretary, J&K Sports Council told media: “Apart from these two sports training centres, we have offered all our such facilities at the disposal of the Health Department to deal with the ongoing situation if any such need arises”.
“Stadium at Srinagar in Kashmir Division and other districts are also kept standby in case of any emergency. As far as Jammu Division is concerned, the sports training centres in all districts of the region can be used by the Health Department we have already apprised to them. But let us hope that no such need arises and deadly pandemic will be contained fully in the days to come”, he maintained.
