New Delhi, Apr 21 (UNI) The Centre has roped in Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft to lift oxygen cylinders, regulators and medicines to Delhi and National Capital Region, the sources in the Defence Ministry said here.
The hospitals in Delhi and NCR region have been facing a huge scarcity of oxygen cylinders due to huge influx of Coronavirus infected patients in Delhi and surrounding areas.
The move comes after the review meeting held by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to aid civil administration and the IAF has started airlifting personnel, doctors and nursing staff to help the government battle the pandemic.
The Air Force has airlifted doctors and nursing staff from various Base Hospitals such as Kochi, Mumbai, Vizag and Bengaluru for setting up of a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Covid hospital at Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Muzaffarpur and other places.
During the review meeting on Tuesday, Mr Singh, while discussing the Covid situation in the country and how Defence forces can support the civil administration with men and machine too he discussed the road map for containment of pandemic.
The force has also airlifted oxygen containers of DRDO from Bengaluru for Covid centres at Delhi.
The Defence Minister also approved for emergency purchase of critical medical supplies under emergency powers of procurement.
The Defence PSU, Ordinance Factory Board and DRDO have been working on war footing to provide oxygen cylinders and extra beds to civil administration/state governments at the earliest whereas based on the On-Board Oxygen Generation Technology developed for LCA Tejas, a 1000 litre/minute capacity oxygen generation plants technology has been given to the industry and the Uttar Pradesh government has placed order of five such plants with the industry.
During the meeting, it was decided augment the numbers of ICU beds at DRDO run Covid hospitals and similar facilities,being created in many states where the medical infrastructure have collapsed due to huge number of cases.
Mr Singh has also directed the Armed Force Medical Services (AFMS) to mobilise its man power and other resources in various military hospitals dealing with COVID patients. To augment the manpower if required, he suggested to utilise the services of vaccinated retired Armed Forces personnel to assist the civil administration,state governments to deal with the current situation.
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