Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
The Delhi government is drawing an action plan to prioritise the health and safety of children living under institutional care as a preemptive measure to prepare for the third wave of Covid-19, which the government believes will be particularly affecting the children, officials informed on Monday.
The officers of the Child and Welfare Department proposed in a meeting with the department’s cabinet minister Rajendra Pal Gautam that the child inmates of children care, shelter homes and observational homes are most vulnerable for the potential third wave.
“Such children have to be prioritized with the help of NGO’s and Anganwadi workers. For this, the department of women and child development will have to work as a nodal agency between all childcare homes, observation homes, NGO’s etc to ensure smooth and seamless coordination,” the officials informed the minister.
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The officials suggested that mobile units can be used to provide medical facilities to child care institutions. Besides, experts should be available in every child care home so that they can assess how many beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrator etc. would be needed in each institution, they added.
Meanwhile, the minister said that with the help of the data of children who have lost one or both parents to covid needs to be prepared by the women and child development department.
The officials apprised the minister that the data is being sought from the health department so that a survey can be conducted to know the actual number of children who have lost their parents or are homeless or differently-abled.
Gautam also instructed the officials of both departments that there should be seamless communication and coordination between all agencies and departments.
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