“Hospitals shouldn’t unnecessarily raise alarms for oxygen, it hampers efforts to provide oxygen to those who’re actually in need,” says Manish Sisodiya

Deputy CM of Delhi and the nodal officer for Covid-19 management Manish Sisodiya, on Sunday, urged hospitals not to raise alarms for oxygen unnecessarily.

Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodiya, on Saturday, held a press conference and appealed to the hospitals in Delhi not to raise alarms unnecessarily for oxygen. He also urged the media to verify the claims before reporting.

Sisodiya added that such acts hinder the efforts to procure oxygen to the hospitals which are indeed in hassle. Well, Mr. Sisodiya is also the nodal officer for Covid-19 management in Delhi.

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Deputy CM Sisodiya tweeted, “This morning, I got an SOS call from a hospital that had 18 kilolitres of oxygen in stock. The hospital requires 4.8 KL a day and has a storage capacity of 21 KL, meaning it still has 3 days of supply left”.

He added, “A small hospital raised an alarm over oxygen shortage, but it was later found that it had been given 30 cylinders, out of which 20 were still to be used. I request hospitals not to raise alarms unnecessarily. Such acts hamper efforts to provide assistance to hospitals that really need help. The media should crosscheck before reporting such cases”.

Although, in the wake of shortage of oxygen in various states, the center has exempted the supply of oxygen and the related pieces of equipment from basic customs duty. According to the government, it will ensure an unencumbered and unimpeded supply of oxygen to hospitals.

Furthermore, the national capital has also been struggling with the shortage of oxygen. The Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, which has approximately 100 patients on oxygen support, has declared that it will not be admitting any more patients. Another private hospital said that it could barely use the oxygen for an hour. The situation is ponderable, indeed.

Well, amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, the national capital extends the lockdown for another week.