Delhi gears up for COVID-19 third wave, to train 5,000 youths as health assistants

New Delhi: Announcing his plan to tackle the possible third COVID-19 wave, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday (June 16) announced that 5000 youths will be trained as health assistants in order to meet the shortage of medical staff. 

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said that these youths will be accorded with basic nursing, home care and first-aid training including reading oxygen levels, vaccinating and so on. The health assistants or community nursing assistants will be imparted two weeks' basic training, PTI reported. 

“In 1st and 2nd waves, we saw shortage of medical and paramedical staff. So, the government has an ambitious plan to prepare 5000 health assistants. 5000 youth will be trained by IP University for 2 weeks each. They will be given basic training at Delhi's 9 major medical institutes.” 

Further, he added, “They'll work as doctors and nurses' assistants. They'll be given basic training in nursing, paramedics, life-saving, first aid and home care.” 

 The online applications will be available from June 17, while the training will commence from June 28, the Delhi CM informed. Candidates should have cleared class 12 and must be 18 or above. 

The assistants will be paid according to the number of days they work, Kejriwal added. 

The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is likely to hit in October and affect children. Many states have started preparations to deal with the third wave. 

Meanwhile, private hospitals including Jaipur Golden Hospital and Batra Hospital in the national capital have started installing their own oxygen generation plants in order to avoid deaths due to oxygen shortage that occurred during the second wave.  

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded 228 COVID-19 cases and 12 fatalities, the lowest since April 3, while the positivity rate was at 0.32 per cent, according to the health bulletin. 

(With agency inputs)

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