Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee offers 850 beds for Covid care

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Tuesday offered to turn eight establishments run by it into Covid care centres to cater to patients with mild symptoms and those in need of oxygen cylinders.

The organisation offered to create a total capacity of 850 beds across these facilities to help meet the growing demand for hospital beds in the national capital amid a surge in Covid cases.

Delhi on Tuesday recorded 1,859 new cases, taking the tally to 44,688.

The DSGMC president wrote to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in this connection, saying all facilities would be free of cost and that they just need the government to attach these to nearby hospitals so that doctors, nurses and paramedic staff could look after patients.

With a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government has been preparing to turn hotels and banquet halls into makeshift hospitals, a move that is expected to add over 15,800 beds to the city’s health care infrastructure.

“We have requested the government for its sanction and support so that we can start offering these services immediately. We will take care of all meals, drinking water, general medicines, oxygen cylinders as well as haematological and biochemistry laboratory services for the admitted patients,” said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president, DSGMC.

The facilities are proposed to be set up at Gurudwara Nanak Piao Sahib, Guru Harkrishan Yatri Niwas, Guru Arjan Dev Yatri Niwas, Guru Hargobind Institute of Management and Information Technology, Guru Har Kishan Public School, Gurudwara Damdama Sahib, Guru Tegh Bahadur Polytechnic Institute and Guru Nank Sukhshala.

“This is a time of crisis and we wish to help people in anyway we can. We have requested the Delhi government to grant us permission, which will help in augmentation of beds in the city,” Sirsa said.