COVID-19: Centre extends support to Delhi govt to manage crisis, increases beds, oxygen supply

Amid a continuous surge in coronavirus infection in the national capital, the Central government on extended support to the Delhi government to manage the crisis and ensured the reactivation of the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) COVID care facility with 500 ICU beds, funded from the PM CARES fund.

Amid a continuous surge in coronavirus infection in the national capital, the Central government on extended support to the Delhi government to manage the crisis and ensured the reactivation of the Defence Research and Development Orgsation's (DRDO) COVID care facility with 500 ICU beds, funded from the PM CARES fund.

Amid the surging COVID-19 cases, the DRDO has set up a facility in New Delhi with all basic facilities free of charge.

As per a Central government official, the facility started operation with 250 beds initially on April 19 and another 250 beds likely to be operational by evening today. "All medical professionals have been provided by Armed Forces Medical Service (AFMS) and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)," said the official.

The facility set up by DRDO in Delhi has all oxygen beds, a large number of ventilators, zero charges, basic testing facilities and air-conditioning, as per WHO standards.

If a patient suffers a neuro or cardiac case, the patient will be referred to the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The Central government also provided medical assistance and manpower for re-activating Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre (SPCCC) at Chhattarpur.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday designated Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) as the Nodal Force for operating the Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre at Delhi's Chhatarpur, which is being re-operationalized amid the rapid surge in cases in the national capital.

"It has been decided to provide an adequate number of medical officers and para-medical staff to man 500 oxygenated beds to Sardar Patel COVID centre, Chhattarpur in Delhi," MHA said in a notification.

In February this year, MHA decided to close India's largest COVID-19 care facility due to a substantially reduced load of patients owing to improvement in the coronavirus situation in the national capital.

The Union government has also increased the number of COVID-19 beds in various Central government's hospitals in Delhi. Now there are 3623 COVID beds in Central government's hospitals, including 480 ICU beds, with ventilators.

As per the official, the Centre is further adding 536 more beds, including 250 ICU beds in DRDO hospital. "With this, the total capacity of Central government-funded COVID beds will reach 4159, including 730 ICU beds," they said.

Amid the reports of shortage of medical oxygen in national capital hospitals, the government of India has increased the quote of per day allocation of oxygen to Delhi from 378 metric tonnes (MT) to 480 MT.

"Movement of allocated oxygen supplies is being monitored on a real-time basis. Issues arising due to the stoppage of tankers are being resolved immediately," the official said.

Delhi registered 26,169 new COVID-19 cases and 306 related deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the health bulletin update on Thursday evening. This was the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities the national capital has registered in Delhi in a single day.

As of now, there are 91,618 active COVID-19 cases in the city while the death toll has mounted to 13,193. So far, 9,56,348 people have been infected with the virus in the national capital since the start of the pandemic.

( With inputs from ANI )