: Delhi government has formed a 13-member panel to prepare an action plan for the third wave of COVID-19 and on augmenting health infrastructure. The panel will be headed by ACS-Power Satya Gopal. Another six-member committee has also been created to examine cases of COVID-19 deaths due to lack of Oxygen.

According to the Delhi government order, the 13-member committee will “assess the present status and projected requirement of the different vertical of health infrastructure like hospitals, oxygen plants, drug supplies etc and prepare an action plan for the Third Wave”.

Tasks of the two committees

The panel will also deal with the supply chain management of crucial services, especially oxygen and critical drugs- the order further said. Some of the other responsibilities given to the panel include  – the creation of a cadre of 10,000 trained paramedical volunteers,  transportation vehicles to procure cryogenic tankers,  analyse the data trends, experiences of other cities, prepare for the special needs of children and create a ‘graded response plan’ for activating hospital infrastructure in the national capital.

“The 6-member Committee will assess on case to case basis complaints received regarding death due to lack of oxygen and would draw up objective criteria to award compensation, limited to a maximum of Rs. 5 lakhs in each case,” the Delhi

The larger committee will also design responses of hospitals in local areas in case of an increase in the number of cases and deliberate upon creating guidelines on when and how to impose lockdowns.

Meanwhile, the national capital, on Wednesday reported 153 mucormycosis (black fungus) cases, exceeding the total number of cases from 620 to 773.