Oxygen Crisis: Not Getting Half Of What Is Needed From Centre, Says Delhi Government

The Delhi government on Tuesday said the state is not even receiving half of what is required from the Centre. In its first oxygen bulletin, the government said that it was getting an average of 40% of the total demand for oxygen from the Central government.

"We need 976 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen, while what we received on Monday from the Centre was only 433 MT. This is only 44% of what we need and what we have demanded from them," Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raghav Chadha said.

He said that in the past week, the city received 393 MT of oxygen against the demand of 976 MT, which is 40 per cent of the total demand.

Chadha informed that on Monday, the Delhi government responded to 41 distress calls and request that came through social media, phone calls, and helplines from hospitals and ensured that oxygen was supplied to all of them at any cost. He also said that on the same day, the government supplied 21.3 MT of oxygen was supplied from emergency reserves to 41 hospitals that had 7,142 patients on oxygen support, reported The Hindu.

"We have made a few SOS reserves, through which we supply the oxygen to those hospitals who are on the verge of exhaustion. Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) is supplied through oxygen tankers to large-scale hospitals. In small-scale hospitals, which have fewer than 50 beds and can suffice with oxygen cylinders, we supply the big D-type oxygen cylinder in an adequate amount," Chadha said.

Chadha said to ensure transparency in operations, the government would put out all the figures in front of the people, and the oxygen bulletin was an attempt to make every detail public.

He added that the gap of 56 per cent between demand and supply in oxygen supply still exists, and the faster we bridge it, the quicker the SOS calls will decrease.