Covid-19 in Delhi: Second wave still raging, Manish Sisodia goes to Rajnath Singh for Army’s help in crisis control

NEW DELHI: With the capital’s health infrastructure overstretched, deputy CM Manish Sisodia in a letter reached out to Union defence minister Rajnath Singh seeking the Army’s help to set up Covid care centres and provide cryogenic tankers for transport of liquid medical oxygen.
“We have asked for help from various stakeholders in terms of oxygen supply, including the Army to provide trucks or DRDO’s facility with 500 beds. But we need intensive and immediate help to ensure proper oxygen supply in Delhi, and we are in touch with private entities, social sector, the central government for the same,” Sisodia said on Monday.
According to a source, Sisodia has written that Delhi government also needed the Army’s help in procuring about 40,000 D-Type medical oxygen cylinders, apart from medical and paramedical teams to augment the healthcare manpower of the capital.
He has also sought Army’s help to set up and manage Covid care centres with about 10,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,000 ICU beds. According to the source, Sisodia in the letter said that on average, Delhi was recording 25,000 new Covid cases every day, and about 10% of them required some form of hospitalisation, including oxygen support.
The additional allocation of oxygen to Delhi has been made from the plants that are located over 1,500km from Delhi, such as Durgapur, Rourkela and arid Kalinga Nagar. One of the major problems being faced was the availability of cryogenic tankers to bring liquid medical oxygen to the capital. Sisodia said that it would be an extraordinary help if the ministry could provide cryogenic tankers.
He has written that since the entire health infrastructure in Delhi was overwhelmed with the management of the existing hospitals and the upcoming Covid hospitals, it would be of timely help if the defence ministry, with considerable resources at its command, was tasked with the responsibility to provide and man the additional Covid health facilities. He has also requested the ministry to arrange for supply of medical oxygen at these Covid health facilities.
At present, Delhi has 16,272 oxygen beds and 4,866 ICU beds. Delhi government would be creating an additional 15,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,200 ICU beds, which are likely to get operationalised in the next 10 days, depending on the supply of medical oxygen.