The New Delhi government is installing thousands of cardboard beds in a spiritual centre on the outskirts of the city that is being converted into a makeshift medical facility for COVID-19 patients AFP/Money SHARMABHIWADI, India: India is deploying thousands of beds made of cardboard to makeshift medical facilities as it struggles to deal with the surging number of coronavirus cases.
Mumbai, which like the capital has seen its hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, is also using them."The most important thing is that the virus only stays on the surface of cardboard for 24 hours," Dhawan said.A study published in March in the US journal NEJM showed the coronavirus can remain for up to three days on plastic but only for 24 hours on cardboard.
"We typically associate beds with steel or wood but the requirement here was such that we needed a kind of disposable or sanitisation bed," said Sudhir Varanasi, head of supply chain management at Sheela.