BJP MP Parvesh Verma opens 100-bed Covid care centre in Delhi’s Ashok Nagar
BJP MP Parvesh Verma said the Covid care centre in west Delhi’s Ashok Nagar will be expanded to 200 beds if required
Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Parvesh Verma on Monday launched a 100-bed Covid care centre in west Delhi’s Ashok Nagar locality, a statement by his office said.
Rashtriya Swabhiman, an organisation founded by his father and former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, has collaborated with Radha Soami Satsang Beas and the district administration to set up the centre, the Lok Sabha MP from West Delhi said.
The opening of the Covid centre comes at a time the health infrastructure in the national capital Delhi has come under intense strain due to the latest surge in Covid-19 cases. On Sunday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal extended the lockdown in Delhi by one more week. On Sunday, the city had recorded 12,651 new Covid cases and reported a test positivity rate of 19%.
“The centre will be a boon for west Delhi residents due to its centrally-placed location in West Delhi. It has 100 oxygen beds to start with and has the capacity to be expanded to 200 beds,” a statement by Verma’s office read.
The statement said each bed at the centre is linked to oxygen concentrators and will be manned by an adequate number of doctors and nurses. The centre will take care of all immediate needs of its patients including their medicines and food.
“People should immediately reach the Covid care centre in case of dropping oxygen levels to combat the disease in the early stage,” Verma said.
The NGO, Rashtriya Swabhiman, was started by his father Sahib Singh Verma in 1998, the same year he had to step down from the Delhi chief minister’s post to make way for his colleague Sushma Swaraj ahead of the Delhi assembly elections.
Over the next several years till his death in a road accident in 2007, Sahib Singh Verma, who served as Union labour minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, used the NGO to carry out relief activities not just in Delhi and neighbouring states but also in states such as Odisha and Gujarat.