After founder succumbs to Covid, Delhi’s Mount Carmel School is 100-bed facility

While several schools run by the Delhi government and civic bodies have been functioning as isolation centres for Covid-19 patients, this is the first time a private school has set up a Covid care facility on its premises in the national Capital

A week after losing its founder to Covid-19, Mount Carmel School in Dwarka, one of Delhi’s prominent private schools, has been converted into a Covid care facility on Monday with around 100 oxygen beds.

The 100-bed Covid care facility at Mount Carmel School. (Photo: Sourced)

While several schools run by the Delhi government and civic bodies have been functioning as isolation centres for Covid-19 patients, this is the first time a private school has set up a Covid care facility on its premises in the national Capital.

Michael Williams, dean of Mount Carmel Schools, said that last week his father and founder of these schools, VK Williams, passed away due to Covid-19. His mother is fighting the disease. “The work on setting up such a facility had begun a month ago. People from over 100 churches across Delhi decided to turn minority schools into Covid care facilities to help the city amid this pandemic. The school buildings are anyway shut these days due to the pandemic...We chose Mount Carmel as the first school for such an initiative… My father passed away while fighting Covid last week and that’s why we decided to name the facility after him. If this experiment works, we will roll it out in other minority schools in Delhi,” he said.

The facility will admit Covid patients with mild symptoms. Presently, there are 100-oxygen beds set up in the auditorium and classrooms at the school. “We have oxygen cylinders and oxygen concentrators. Our friends from South Korea have gifted us two oxygen generator plants that will be up and running by this weekend. We can then generate our own oxygen for these facilities,” Williams said.

There will be 75 volunteers, including doctors, and nurses from Christian hospitals, working with the school administration. “Four full-time doctors with nursing staff will be there round the clock. Other doctors will be available for tele-consultation...The facility is meant for people with mild to moderate symptoms and hence, there will be little intervention of doctors. We have also tied up with Venkateshwara and St Stephen’s hospitals for consultation,” he said.

Dr Sunil Gokavi, medical in-charge of the facility, said that they have started getting queries from the families of Covid-19 patients. “We have set up a team to address all these queries. We will examine each case before approving admissions. We are having a discussion with the family of our first possible patient as we speak,” he said.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia appreciated the initiative. “...A very kind gesture by the private School when it lost its chairman to Covid just two weeks back,” he tweeted.