Army hospitals now open for civilians: Gen Naravane to PM

THE ARMED FORCES, DEFENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION AND DEFENCE PUBLIC SECTOR UNDERTAKINGS HAVE EXTENDED AID TO AUGMENT EFFORTS AGAINST COVID PANDEMIC

NEW DELHI: Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Thursday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him about the Army’s Covid-19 assistance to state governments. He told Modi, who has held a series of meeting with top military officers since Monday, that the Army has provided states medical staff and was helping them set up temporary hospitals.

“The army is opening up the hospitals for civilians and citizens in case of an emergency could approach their nearest hospital,” an official statement quoted Naravane telling Modi. He added the Army was helping the government with manpower to operate the newly imported oxygen tankers and vehicles.

The armed forces, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and defence public sector undertakings have been working to augment efforts to deal with the second Covid-19 wave. They have set up Covid hospitals, ramped up oxygen production, airlifted medical staff and oxygen containers, and liaised with state governments to help deal with the rising number of Covid-19 cases. The Army set up a 100-bed hospital for Covid-19 patients in Punjab’s Mohali on Tuesday after chief minister Amarinder Singh’s request. It converted its Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment into a Covid-19 hospital on Wednesday following a record surge of infections in the national capital.

India faces the worst surge of Covid-19 infections, which have crossed the 300,000-mark daily for the past few days. The second wave of the pandemic has pushed the death toll close to 200,000 and starved hospitals of life-saving medical oxygen and beds.

The Naravane-Modi meeting came a day after the Prime Minister stressed the need to increase the speed, scale and safety of operations in transporting oxygen tankers and other essential material to fight the pandemic as he reviewed the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s Covid relief efforts.

IAF chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Wednesday briefed Modi on his force’s efforts to help fight the pandemic. Bhadauria told Modi that IAF has set up a dedicated Covid-19 air support cell to ensure faster coordination with different ministries and agencies.