COVID-19: Kejriwal asks AAP workers to help set up oxygen testing centres in every Indian village

He asked all state conveners to be ready with the draft plans by Wednesday.

Oxygen centres in India: AAP to allot ‘oxi-mitra’ to every village in India! Aam Aadmi Party president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a meeting with the party’s state conveners on Monday, in which he told them about his plan of assigning an ‘oxi-mitra’ to every Indian village, according to a report by IE. He discussed with the conveners the need for oxygen testing centres in the rural parts of India, and in order to achieve that, he said that the ‘oxi-mitra’ for a particular village would be given the charge of setting up the centre and leading the team of volunteers.

The report quoted the Chief Minister as saying that the party’s workers would have to visit every house and conduct a door-to-door survey. He further asked all the conveners to be ready with the draft plans for achieving the purpose in their respective states by Wednesday.

He further stated that the falling levels of oxygen was the biggest challenge among patients of COVID-19 and that timely detection of low oxygen levels and proper help could save several lives.

Earlier this month, doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that it was important that people measure their oxygen levels while in home isolation. This advisory came after a 35-year-old woman was rushed to the hospital with fever, sore throat and breathlessness and her oxygen saturation at 67%, another report in IE had stated. However, she was not feeling any discomfort or uneasiness due to the low oxygen levels, due to which doctors believe she was experiencing silent hypoxemia.

In this condition, the patient does not feel any shortage of breath, but his oxygen levels are significantly lower than normal. The report had quoted additional professor at AIIMS Dr Monish Soneja as saying that in COVID-19 typically, patients came to the hospital without many other clinical features, but with hypoxemia. Therefore, the doctor said, it was important that those in home isolation track their oxygen levels regularly.

It can be expected that these oxygen testing centres might be able to help people in the remote areas to ensure that their oxygen levels remain normal. In Delhi itself, the Arvind Kejriwal-led state government is providing pulse oximeter, a device to measure oxygen levels, to the COVID-19 patients who opt for home isolation.