Oxygen langar in Ghaziabad’s Gurdwara! NGO offers free oxygen to Covid patients

The oxygen langar has been set up in the gurdwara premises by non-profit Khalsa Help International. (Representational image: IE)

For Covid-19 patients, an “oxygen langar” has been set up at a gurdwara located in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram. The oxygen can be availed by patients who need the life-saving gas for free. The oxygen langar has been set up in the gurdwara premises by non-profit Khalsa Help International. The service is available 24X7 and can cater to around 80 people at a time. The founder of the non-profit and the gurdwara committee’s president, Gurpreet Singh Rummy was quoted in an IE report saying that at present, they are not offering oxygen cylinder refilling or take-away, thus patients are required to come to the gurdwara to avail the service.

According to Rummy, this service has been started about eight days ago to help covid positive patients who need oxygen and are not able to find the gas anywhere. A tent has been set up in a 500-meter area in the gurdwara premises for them and has a pipeline connecting to 2-3 large oxygen cylinders. At the gurdwara premises, about 25 beds have been kept where covid patients can rest and stabilize their oxygen levels. Besides, for the patients who are unable to enter the premises, volunteers can carry oxygen cylinders to their cars, he said.

The NGO founder further said when a patient comes in, their oxygen level is checked through an oximeter and are taken to a bed immediately. People have been coming to the gurdwara premises from as far as Kanpur and Ludhiana. Oxygen is supplied to the NGO from places in Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan with volunteers going there to collect the canisters. At the langar, about 150 volunteers are providing support, he said.

According to Rummy, in the coming days, their capacity would be enhanced to cater to approximately 100 patients at a time. About 4,000 people have come to the langar over the last eight days to get oxygen. Patients who visit the premises can stay there as long as they like until their level of oxygen is stable and are fit to travel to find a bed in a hospital. If after leaving from the gurdwara premises their oxygen level dips again, the patients can return and the NGO will help them, he said.