<span style="color: #222222;">Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan today inaugurated a 10-bedded make-shift Hospital at NDRF base in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The hospital has been set up by NDRF in collaboration with CSIR constituent laboratory CSIR-CBRI, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The makeshift hospital is designed for the patients to provide a primary health facility with safety, security and a comfortable living environment. This fully Air Conditioned pre-fabricated makeshift hospital is equipped with various modern facilities like Paramonitors, Defibrillators and ECG Machines. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Hospital is planned to serve the purpose for the disaster stage including for use in long pandemic or emergency situations.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, COVID-19 pandemic which originated from China has thrown a huge challenge to the people across the world. He said, India took extremely serious steps from the beginning and developed an effective strategy to fight against this deadly virus from 8th of January this year. He appreciated all the departments of the Government of India for their contribution in effective management of the pandemic.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Minister added that some eminent scientists of the world predicted that there would be around 300 million cases till July-August this year and five to six million people would die due to this deadly virus in India. However, even after eight months, India has not crossed the three million mark, out of which two million patients have fully recovered. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said, India has the highest recovery rate of around 75 per cent as well as lowest mortality rate of 1.87 per cent across the world. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, Government has developed and scaled up diagnostic and remarkably strengthened the testing capacity and today India has developed 1,511 labs and over 15 thousand dedicated COVID hospitals across the country. He said, yesterday, India conducted over one million tests.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Applauding the efforts of NDRF, the Minister said, NDRF has been striving hard to serve the countrymen with full zeal and commitment. He congratulated NDRF for their tremendous contribution in COVID pandemic management as well as disaster management. He said that NDRF will soon get recognition from the United Nations and be able to respond across the world under the UN Umbrella. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He also applauded all the scientists of the Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, ICMR, Researchers, Frontline Workers like Doctors, Police, Army, NDRF for their tremendous support and contribution toward fighting against this deadly virus.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Director General of NDRF, Satya Narayan Pradhan highlighted the efforts of NDRF in COVID-19 pandemic management and disaster management. He also felt the need to establish such make-shift hospitals in other NDRF battalions in collaboration with CSIR. Mr Pradhan said, NDRF is planning to procure all its disaster response equipment or tools from DRDO and CSIR to promote the Make in India campaign.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Director General of CSIR Dr. Shekhar C. Mande and senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, CSIR, CBRI and NDRF were present on the occasion.</span><br />''