Delhi air pollution: Hospitals asked to set up special teams to treat patients facing respiratory issues
As the air pollution levels in Delhi continue to remain toxic, taking a toll on the health of residents, the Atishi government has directed all state-run hospitals to constitute teams of specialists to tackle patients with respiratory ailments. The Delhi government on Tuesday asked the hospitals to monitor and report daily cases of respiratory ailments, including both outpatient (OPD) and inpatient (IPD) cases, and to promptly flag any unusual increase in the number of cases.??
Increase in respiratory issues?
The advisory mandates that hospitals designate specialists to address respiratory diseases and ensure comprehensive care for affected patients.??
The development comes as hospitals across the national capital are seeing an increase in patients seeking treatment with complaints of difficulty in breathing and other respiratory issues. Those seeking treatment for eye and skin-related issues have also increased in the past few days.??
Delhi's air pollution crisis
Delhi's air quality breached the "severe plus" category for the first time this winter season on Sunday, leading to the implementation of Stage IV restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) on Monday morning.??
The capital's air quality had remained in the "severe" category for days, with PM2.5 concentrations surging past 400 ?g/m? -- far beyond the World Health Organization's (WHO) safe limit of 15 ?g/m? for 24-hour exposure.??
'Delhi's AQI has improved'
On Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the national capital's AQI has shown slight improvement over the past two days.??
Rai said that the Delhi government is also exploring the option of carrying out artificial rains to bring down air pollution.??
"Time has come to carry out artificial rainfall to break the layer of smog. The Government of Delhi, with the help of IIT Kanpur, last year explored cloud seeding as an emergency measure to artificially induce rain and reduce air pollution during such critical periods. This year we started preparations in August to carry out cloud seeding. Despite several requests, the meeting was not held earlier," Rai said.??
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