KATHMANDU: The government is making preparations to bring all the private hospitals under its control to effectively provide medical services to corona-affected patients.

Dr Bikas Devkota, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population, informed the Supreme Court on Sunday that the government will own all the private and community hospitals.

Responding to the query raised by Justice Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai about the future plan of the government to contain the COVID-19, Dr Devkota said the state will use all the beds of private hospitals and medical colleges to contain the coronavirus.

However, Devkota did make it clear whether the decision was for the time being or forever.

Three writ petitions were heard on Sunday. The writ petitions had been filed at the SC, demanding PPEs for the journalists, adequate foodstuffs for the low-income people and solution to the current problem by bringing an ordinance.

Informing the Supreme Court’s bench, Dr Devkota said there are currently 27,818 quarantine beds and 3,114 isolation beds across the country.

Similarly, a total of 4,000 people can be screened for covoronavirus in a week, Dr Devkota said.

As many as 300 to 500 Intensive Care Units are required in a state but there are only 751 ICUs in the country in total, currently.