Delhi Govt Hospitals to provide free booster doses of COVID Vaccine

New Delhi: Precaution doses of Covid vaccines will soon be provided free of cost to people in government hospitals soon, the Delhi government announced on Friday.

According to the protocol, the precaution doses of the vaccine will be given to the people who have completed nine months of taking their second dose, it said in a statement.  

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The Delhi government also said that it has instructed officials to keep an eye on the surge of the fresh Covid cases. It added that about 37,000 Covid beds and 10,594 Covid ICU beds have been prepared in the state.

If the infection spreads, the government has planned to increase 100 oxygen beds in every civic ward within two weeks. Delhi government plans to prepare 65,000 beds to avoid the shortage of beds in an emergency situation, said the statement.

Currently, Delhi has a capacity of 1363.73 MT of oxygen, including Liquid Medical Oxygen Storage (LMO), Liquid Medical Oxygen Buffer, and PSA Plant. At the same time, the medical institution has the capacity of oxygen cylinders of up to 217 metric tonnes. Apart from this, 6,000 D type cylinders have been kept in reserve for use in an emergency.

Earlier, the oxygen refilling capacity in Delhi was limited to 1,500 cylinders a day, but now the 2 cryogenic plants with a capacity of 12.5 MT will be able to fill an additional 1,400 jumbo cylinders every day, the statement from Delhi government said.

Telemetry devices have been installed on oxygen tanks for real-time monitoring of oxygen levels and will help in supplying oxygen as per the requirements in case of an emergency, it said.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has also said that Delhi government is closely monitoring the situation and all hospitals have been advised to remain alert amidst increasing cases of Covid in the city. "Prevention is better than cure. All those who have not yet taken the vaccine or have taken only the first dose, should be taken to their nearest health facility as soon as possible for complete vaccination", said Jain.

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