Minister of Women and Child Development Department (WCD) Rajendra Pal Gautam chaired a high level meeting on Monday to review the preparations of the "imminent" third wave of Covid-19.
In the meeting, the Minister ordered that all the departments will have to work in close coordination with each other to ensure the safety of the children who are vulnerable in the potential third wave.
Officers of the department apprised the Minister that children living in institutional care such as children's home, observational homes and shelter homes have to be prioritised with the help of NGO's and Anganwadi workers.
To achieve this purpose, the department of women and child development will have to work as a nodal agency between all childcare homes,observation homes, NGO's etc in order to ensure smooth and seamless coordination, officials told the minister.
They also apprised the minister that caregivers, staff and supervisors of children's homes need to be vaccinated on a priority basis. The officials of the health department said that 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
The WCD minister said that with the help of the health department, all 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 official of the health department informed the minister about the ongoing preparations for children across hospitals in Delhi which includes specialised ventilators and masks.
“Special arrangements are also being made for parents of children who are in the hospital in terms of their stay and vaccination. Aprovision is also being made for the vaccination of parents,” he said.
Gautam instructed the officials of both departments that there should be seamless communication and coordination between all agencies and departments.