New Delhi: Fortis Healthcare has announced a 360 degree action plan to meet the challenges of treating COVID19 patients with a slew of initiatives. As the entire country comes together to beat this pandemic, Fortis has set up isolation wards in all of its 28 hospitals across the country and a total of 262 isolation beds have been earmarked to treat COVID19 patients. The medical teams at Fortis are already treating 21 COVID19 positive cases along with 87 suspected cases at various hospitals. Two COVID-19 patients are all set to go home after their discharge from Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, today. The current capacity of isolation beds across the network has considerable scope for expansion as per situational requirements.

Speaking on the preparedness of Fortis to treat COVID19 patients, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO & MD, Fortis Healthcare, said, "Fortis stands ready to support the needs of the country in these challenging times. We hope that the visionary pre-emptive 21 days' lockdown announced by Honourable Prime Minister of India will help to break the chain. At the same time, we are working closely with the central and state governments to ramp up the infrastructure of isolation and critical care beds along with the necessary medical supplies and equipment to meet the challenge. We are continuously monitoring the evolving situation and will do everything possible to expand bed availability should the situation require the same. We are also doing everything possible to keep our doctors, nurses and other staff, safe and protected."

Fortis hospital, Jaipur diagnosed one of the first few cases of COVID19 in the country on 1st March 2020 when an Italian national was admitted. Since then its network of 28 hospitals across India has been meticulously enhancing skills and capacities to enable the hospital chain to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the healthcare delivery system to effectively combat this pandemic. A "3-tier COVID defence structure" is in place at all Fortis hospitals, with immaculate screening, Fever (FLU) Clinics, and in-patient isolation facilities. Fortis is also laIsioning with health authorities at the district and state level intensely with the result that for health authorities in Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra, Fortis has been their go to destination.

Social distancing and testing remain the bedrock of fighting COVID19. SRL Diagnostics, Fortis's diagnostics company, has been working closely with the Government and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), to augment the nation's COVID19 testing capacity. Two clinical labs – Goregaon (Mumbai) and Gurgaon (Delhi-NCR), which are NABL and CAP accredited with BSL2 features for sample collection, have started testing in Delhi, Gurugram and Mumbai. These two labs have the capacity to cater to the rest of the country.

Summing up, Dr Raghuvanshi added, "It is indeed a time to collaborate and support in every possible way in this fight against COVID19. It is very inspiring to see the Government being so proactive in devising a strong approach to deal with this issue. With a national footprint across the country, we at Fortis Healthcare are proud to be an integral part of this formidable counter force."