The state government will convert the New Town campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute into a dedicated hospital for treatment of Covid-19 patients, officials said on Wednesday.

The Infectious Diseases and Beleghata General Hospital and an annexe of AMRI Hospitals Salt Lake, too, will be reserved for people suffering from Covid-19.

The New Town hospital, yet to become operational, was functioning as a quarantine centre for suspected Covid-19 patients.

“The quarantine centre has been shifted and the facility is being converted into a coronavirus treatment unit. About 250 beds are being set up there,” said a state government official.

Fifty more beds are being set up at the Beleghata hospital, taking the total count to around 90, the official said.

The annexe of AMRI Hospital’s Salt Lake unit will be converted into a treatment centre for critical patients suffering from Covid-19.

“All three hospitals should be ready in a couple of days. We are preparing ourselves for a possible rise in the number of coronavirus patients in Bengal,” a health department official said.

The government has also decided to get people suffering from severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), a common Covid-19 symptom, admitted to the College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital in Kamarhati, on the northern fringes of the city.

“Those suffering from SARI will initially be kept at Sagore Dutta hospital. If any one tests positive for the virus, he or she will be immediately shifted to any of the three hospitals reserved for Covid-19 patients,” an official said.

“Those who will require critical care support such as ventilator will be shifted to the Beleghata hospital or AMRI, while those with relatively mild symptoms will be kept at the cancer hospital.”

The decision about the hospitals was taken at a meeting between the government and the task force set up by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The task force has also prepared a treatment protocol for coronavirus patients, which will be circulated to hospitals across Bengal. “We have received reports that at some hospitals, doctors are giving antibiotics to coronavirus patients. Antibiotic has no role in treating Covid-19,” a member of the task force said.

“The protocol will have three stages of intervention — providing oxygen supply, maintaining adequate nutrition and preventing dehydration through drips. Also, the temperature has to be controlled,” the member said.

The team treating a coronavirus patient should have a physician, pulmonologist and an anaesthetist, he said.