Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday convened a review meeting in which he directed officials to increase oxygen beds across several facilities in the city. He said the Delhi government was working on a war footing to ensure oxygen supply in the city.
Following the meeting, Mr. Kejriwal raised serious concerns over acute oxygen shortage across various COVID-19 facilities in Delhi and urged the Centre to urgently provide oxygen since some hospitals were left with just a few hours’ supply.
“Had a review meeting with officials on the current situation of Corona. We are working on a war footing to ensure oxygen supply in Delhi, and are also talking to the central government. An increase in the number of oxygen beds is happening on a large scale,” he tweeted.
In another development later in the day, Health Minister Satyendar Jain tweeted: “Acute shortage of oxygen at GTB Hospital. Oxygen may not last beyond 4 hrs. More than 500 corona patients on oxygen. Pl help @PiyushGoyal to restore oxygen supply to avert major crisis [sic].”
A message from the head of the hospital to the Minister said that a private company in U.P. was not being allowed to send oxygen to Delhi.
“Over 241 metric tonne and 355 MT are the oxygen supplies provided to Delhi against a daily requirement of 700 MT. The figure of 508 MT is wrong as right now the stock position in most of the hospitals, public or private, is not more than 10 to 12 hours. This is when each hospital is required to maintain minimum three days of stock position of oxygen,” he said.
