Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare inspected the newly installed Oxygen Plant and the construction progress of new COVID Blocks at Safdarjung Hospital, today morning.

Expansion of high end medical facilities at the hospital had played crucial role in curbing the tide of the second wave of COVID cases. During this visit, the Union Health minister has reviewed the COVID preparedness of the hospital during the meeting held with doctors of Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.

Dr Harsh Vardhan started his visit by reviewing the functioning of the Pressure Swing Adsorption(PSA) Oxygen Plant facility which has been established in a record time. This is 3rd plant to be installed at the Central Government hospital in New Delhi, after Dr RML Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College.The Plantof ~1 MT capacity has been built by DRDO with assistance from the PM-CARES fund. This will supplement the hospital’s efforts in providing Medical Oxygen to theCOVID affected patient. The Minister noted that the country has expeditiously arranged for Oxygen Plants for treatment of the severe cases of COVID that need hospitalisation. “Safdarjung Hospital will soon be equipped with another plant of 2 MT capacity, which further enhancing this capacity. Similarly, 1051 plants are in the process of being established with the help of DRDO, CSIR and HITEC all over the country.”

He also visited the under constructionnew COVID Block, being built with the help of CSIR-Central Building Research Institute (CSIR-CBRI), Roorkee and examined the progress work. He instructed the team to complete this block at earliest.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan also advised people about COVID complications being seen across the country due to indiscriminate breach of treatment protocols. He observed, “People are taking heavy doses of steroids even when they have not turned hypoxic. Steroids are to be provided only when a patient is hypoxic, to be administered in small doses to prevent side effects and not more than a few days at a stretch. Recommendations of a doctor is must for the use of these medicines.” These steps should take care of occurrence of the higher number of Mucormycosis infections being reported country-wide, he hoped.

He also requested doctors to stick to ICMR guidelines while treating COVID Patients.

Speaking to the media there, Dr Harshvardhan spoke about the trend of declining COVID cases in recent days. He informed about the 3,89,851 recoveries in the last 24 hours; new cases in the last 24 hours have been at 2,67,334; while the recoveries outnumber the new cases by more than 1 lakhs. The daily recoveries have now outnumbered the new cases for the 6th consecutive day now which has contributed to the reduction of Active Caseload. He also pointed out about the active cases being 32,26,719 as of today.

Dr Harsh Vardhan appealed to the citizens for their contribution in bringing down the COVID cases: “Wearing of masks, following hand hygiene and social distancing between individuals; all COVID Appropriate Behaviour when followed in discipline will help check COVID.” He also asked people to be in their homes and venture out only when absolutely necessary.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan expressed his heartfelt condolences for all the COVID victims. He eulogized the well-known faces of the Medical Community who have lost their lives to COVID in recent days and said, “Dr. K. K. Aggarwal, past President of IMA had contributed to popularization of Health Education among the masses. Dr. Sekhar Agarwal, Orthopedician treated thousands of patients, Dr. Pankaj Bhatnager also helped many cancer patients get better and we have lost them to COVID.”

The Union Health Minister also remembered the countless COVID warriors who have died in the line of duty. In this regard, he also remembered the sacrifice of the media community who have lost notable personalities like Shri Sunil Jain, Shri Sesh Narayan Singh and Shri Rohit Sardana.

The Minister was joined in his visit by Dr. S.V. Arya, Medical Superintendent, Dr. Sarvesh Tandon, Assistant Professor and other senior faculty/doctors of the Institute.

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MV

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