NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday inaugurated 22 oxygen plants at nine hospitals in the national capital through video conferencing, and stated that Delhi is preparing for the third wave of the deadly pandemic. “I pray to God that the third wave of Corona does not emerge, but if it does, Delhi has to prepare on a war footing and fight it together,” said Kejriwal during the virtual event.
He said that the indications of a third wave are coming from the UK where coronavirus cases are rising again despite “45 per cent of its population” being vaccinated. “So, we cannot afford to sit idle,” he said, adding that the newly inaugurated plants have a total production capacity of 17.3 MT, and will strengthen the preparations to fight Covid. As many as 17 more oxygen plants will be started by July, he said.
The Delhi government is also procuring oxygen tankers to aid the fight against a third wave, he said, adding that the previous wave, which in on the wane, was “very dangerous”. Expressing gratitude towards industries for their help in fighting the second wave, Kejriwal said the people of Delhi came together to combat the pandemic with struggle and discipline, and have “succeeded in controlling it”.
The Delhi Chief Minister also thanked the Centre for extending help and corporates for the supporting the government on various issues. “This is a huge development. I want to thank everyone who has supported us in this endeavour, including the Centre for supporting us. Want to thank the industries and corporates for their support during this pandemic,” said the chief minister.
Doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, sanitation workers, and others played a huge role in the fight against the virus, he said, adding, “I know many doctors who did not go home for days. I want to thank them on behalf of the people of Delhi.” The chief minister underlined that the number of peak cases in a day in the first wave was about 4,500 which escalated to over 28,000 in the last.
One of the major contributors is the multinational company HCL, which is providing 21 ready-to-install oxygen plants, imported from France, and 17 of these have already been installed across seven hospitals in Delhi. The remaining four have also arrived and will be installed over the next few days, informed, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCL Technologies.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that of the total PSA plants opened Saturday, 17 have been given by HCL Technologies and four by Maruti Udyog. HCL will be supplying five more plants soon, he said. The plants have been distributed among hospitals like Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, Deep Chand Bandhu, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nirankari Field Hospital, Madan Mohan Malviya.