Brazil’s iconic Maracana stadium is being transformed into a temporary 400-bed hospital for attending to coronavirus infected patients. The stadium that hosted the 2014 Fifa World Cup final will now be used to tend to those who have been tested positive for COVID-19. Brazil has over 5,000 confirmed cases of the deadly virus which has so far infected over 8 and a half lakh people across the world.
The temporary facility will not be inside the field, but in the car park area and will be one of the eight facilities being set up across Rio de Janeiro. The Maracana is one of the several football stadiums in Brazil that is being used to help deal with an expected influx of coronavirus patients in the country. Rio state has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in Brazil after Sao Paulo. While the car park and surrounding areas of the Maracana stadium is being considered to be made into temporary facilities, authorities are not looking at turning the turf into a medical facility yet.
With sporting activities at a standstill, many sporting grounds are being used to aid the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. The US Open’s iconic Billie Jean stadium is also being turned into a temporary medical facility. With almost all sporting activities suspended, cancelled or postponed, it is unclear when the sporting calendar will resume or what it will look like when it does.
