Can allot space if any organisation willing to set up Covid care centre on campus: DU

Amid a surge in cases of coronavirus in the capital, Delhi University officials on Friday said the varsity is ready to allot space if any organisation is willing to set up a Covid care facility for students and staff on the campus

Amid a surge in cases of coronavirus in the capital, Delhi University officials on Friday said the varsity is ready to allot space if any organisation is willing to set up a Covid care facility for students and staff on the campus.

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Registrar Vikas Gupta said the university did not have the infrastructure to maintain these Covid care centres and pointed out that there were a lot of specialised requirements to put in place. “Our medical colleges are attached to hospitals so it will not be feasible to use their services for the centre. We have been holding deliberations and are open to offering university space to organisations that may be willing to run it. We can give our grounds and stadiums for this purpose,” he said.

So far, the university has run vaccination camps in north and south campus for its teachers and officials.

On Thursday, a group of DU teachers had written to the administration asking them to set up Covid care facilities in the wake of increasing cases. “We are facing far worse situation [than last time] and hundreds of teachers and employees are running from pillar to post for a single bed in hospitals. Some of them have lost their precious lives and many of them are struggling. In such a situation, the university should extend help to students, teachers and employees,” said former executive council member Rajesh Jha, a professor at Rajdhani College.

Teachers’ group Academics for Action and Development, of which Jha is a member, said it had written to the university administration on the matter last year. “In our earlier emails, we have suggested attaching the university guest houses to World University Services (WUS) health centre and develop the facilities for Covid-infected university employees. Efforts should be made to develop some beds with Level-3 facility, if not more than that. For this purpose, we can seek help from our own medical and nursing colleges,” the teachers’ group said in its letter to the university administration.

Several other teachers also said they had pointed out the lack of medical facilities on campus earlier. Pankaj Garg, convener of the Indian National Teachers’ Congress (INTEC), said he had to try for three days to get an RT-PCR test done by a private lab.

“A testing centre can be established at least using existing resources so that teachers don’t have to run from pillar to post to get tested. A Covid care centre can be set up because we already have at least 15 doctors at the university’s health centre. These doctors can be used to set up a temporary centre. Mild to moderate cases can be monitored there,” he said.