LG inaugurates 10K-bed COVID care centre in Delhi's Chhattarpur

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Sunday inaugurated the 10,000-bed Sardar Patel COVID-19 care centre at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas complex in south Delhi's Chhattarpur area.

The facility is sprawled over an area roughly the size of 20 football fields and has 200 enclosures with 50 beds each.

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is the nodal agency to operate this facility. ITBP Director General Surjeet Singh Deswal was present at the inauguration of the centre.

The centre will treat mild and asymptomatic coronavirus patients, including those who are asymptomatic but cannot afford home isolation.

The volunteers from the Radha Soami Satsang Beas will help the ITBP and Delhi government to run this one-of-its-kind facility. Delhi Chief Secretary Vjay Kumar Dev had visited the Centre on Saturday.

"The first set of patients will come to the centre on Sunday," Additional District Magistrate (South) Arun Gupta told IANS.

The LG addressed a gathering on the occasion and praised the efforts made to set up the facility.

"This massive facility has been made possible only because of the joint efforts of the ITBP, Delhi administration, followers of the dera and other authorities. It will definitely help reduce rush of patients in COVID-19 dedicated hospitals in the national capital," Baijal said.

Recently, NGO EKPRAYAS donated sanitisation kits for patients at the facility. Sangini Saheli, a women-led public welfare initiative, too stepped in and began supply of free sanitary napkins to women patients at the COVID care centre.

The District Magistrate (South) requested Reliance Jio to support the endeavour by augmenting data connectivity at the centre. Official sources said that the telecom giant had given a positive response to the request and one company team had visited the centre to take stock of the situation.

The national capital witnessed a spike of 2,505 cases, taking its total tally to 97,200. Delhi now has 25,940 active cases, with 3,004 deaths. As many as 68,256 patients have recovered, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data said on Sunday.