Preparing For 3rd Wave, Kerala Converts A Closed Down Coca Cola Plant Into COVID-19 Facility
Even as India is slowly emerging out of the deadly second wave of COVID-19 which saw the country recording more than 4 lakh cases in a day during the peak, there is not much room to relax.
That is because according to most health experts the third wave of the pandemic is around the corner and it is a matter of when and not if.
Given how unprepared the country was for the carnage unleashed by the second wave, many states have already began preparations for the third wave.
Kerala, which has the third-highest number of infections has also started the groundworks.
3rd wave preparations
On Friday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that a non-functioning Coca-Cola plant in Palakkad district has been converted into a COVID-19 facility.
"Turned a non-functioning Coca Cola plant in Palakkad into a 550 bed Covid treatment center spending ?1.1 Crore. The CSLTC has 100 oxygen beds, 50 ICU beds and 20 ventilators. Kerala is gearing up for the impending third wave," Vijayan said in a tweet.
Scene of a massive protest
The Coca-Cola bottling plant was the scene of an unprecedented protest in Kerala in the early 2000s.
The plant was located in Plachimada, a tribal village, where the locals alleged that soon after the bottling unit started functioning the wells there dried up and that the water had turned toxic.
Led by an elderly tribal woman by the name of Mayilamma, the Anti-Coca Cola Peoples Struggle Committee launched a mass protest outside the bottling unit, demanding its closure.
Faced with mounting pressure, the Perumatty panchayat revoked the license for the plant and after a lengthy legal battle, in 2018 the company officially announced the closure of the factory which had remained shut since 2003.
According to CM Vijayan, the building now will act as a COVID second-line treatment centre (SLTC).
Of the 550 beds, 100 have oxygen facilities and 20 ventilator facilities. Fifty of the beds are in the ICU. The centre has air-conditioned readymade cabins, oxygen cylinder support for all beds, 1 kl oxygen tank which can be expanded to 2 kl, portable x-ray console, and around-the-clock COVID OP.
