New Delhi: Even as the Women and Child Development Department works to track all such children who have lost one or both parents to Covid-19 so they can be taken care of in the event of a third wave, the Delhi government is working on plans to create protective bubbles around the city's children by vaccinating all adults in their immediate vicinity.
WCD Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Monday chaired meetings with officials of the department and other related agencies, where it was discussed that kids living in institutional care such as in children's homes, observational centres and shelters must be prioritised through NGOs and Anganwadi centres.
In fact, a plan to vaccinate caregivers, staff and supervisors at these institutions on priority was also discussed along with mass-scale vaccination of parents in the city. The Delhi government has already started reaching out to lakhs of households with children through Anganwadi networks and educating the parents about the need to get vaccinated.
The only effective measure to protect children is by vaccinating the parents and ensuring a sound medical infrastructure catering to the needs of children, a statement from the Delhi government said.
It has also been decided that the WCD department will have to work as a nodal agency between all childcare homes, observation homes, NGOs, etc to ensure smooth and seamless coordination, it said.
In childcare institutions, trained employees will be required during the potential third wave of Corona, for which preparations need to be made and a mobile unit can be used to provide medical facilities to such institutions, WCD officials said.
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 concentrators, etc. would be needed in each institution, the statement said.
"All these preparations are being made keeping in mind the third COVID wave which is expected to impact children and also the fact that vaccines for children under 18 are still not available in India," the statement added.
Gautam instructed the officials that there should be seamless communication and coordination between all agencies and departments.
And as authorities prepare the infrastructure needed to care for the city's children, the Delhi government is independently collating data of children who lost parents to the virus from Child Welfare Committees, the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and other sources so that the benefits announced by CM Arvind Kejriwal can reach beneficiaries.
Gautam has said that an online portal is also being set up where caregivers of such children can fill up a form and apply for benefits under the government schemes. The minister said the form should be ready in the next two days and officials have added that it will be available on the district portals as well.