On Saturday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sent out an SOS to all the chief ministers amid the crippling shortage of medical oxygen – triggered by the unprecedented spike in Covid-19 cases.
“I am writing to all CMs requesting them to provide oxygen to Delhi, if they have spare. Though Central govt. is also helping us, the severity of corona is such that all available resources are proving inadequate,” Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal wrote in a Tweet on Saturday.
I am writing to all CMs requesting them to provide oxygen to Delhi, if they have spare. Though Central govt. is also helping us, the severity of corona is such that all available resources are proving inadequate.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 24, 2021
Mr Kejriwal’s distress call comes after the union territory witnessed the sad demise of 25 patients at a hospital in Delhi’s Rohini due to the shortage of Oxygen and several others approached the high court informing about similar challenges.
“We had been allotted 3.5 metric tonnes of oxygen from the government. The supply was to reach us by 5 in the evening, but it reached around midnight. By then, 25 patients had died,” said Dr Deep Baluja, medical director of the Jaipur Golden Hospital in Rohini, as quoted by NDTV.
Since the past few days, Delhi continues to remain the worst-hit city – reporting over 20,000 daily Covid cases.
Delhi’s crippling healthcare infrastructure has raised eyebrows across the nation as over 90,000 active cases have been reported. On Friday, it had recorded the highest-ever 348 deaths in a day.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal – through his Twitter handle – repeatedly highlighted the national capital’s condition in regards to the current Covid-19 situation and had appealed to the centre to provide more medical supplies for the national capital.
Meanwhile, several big and small hospitals treating Covid patients in Delhi have said their oxygen supplies are running dangerously low.
Last week, the centre had increased Delhi’s oxygen quota to 480 metric tonnes. On the other hand, the Delhi government today told the High Court that the medical system in the national capital would collapse if it didn’t receive the promised amount of the live-saving gas, reported NDTV.
Earlier this week, the court told the centre “Beg, borrow or steal,” to provide the required amount of oxygen to Delhi, and warned that “all hell would break loose” if hospitals ran out of oxygen.
Delhi has reported an extreme shortage of oxygen for the patients contracting the novel coronavirus cases. Several hospitals have taken to social media platforms seeking oxygen cylinders for Covid-19 positive patients both in hospitals as well as home isolation.