Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the oxygen crisis in Delhi has improved and directed officials to ensure that there are no deaths because of shortage of oxygen in the city.
While chairing a high-level meeting on Friday, he also directed officials to make sure all eligible people are vaccinated within the next three months.
“Now that Delhi has received oxygen, no one in Delhi should suffer because of shortage of oxygen. All hospitals in Delhi should increase their beds and every DM should arrange new oxygen beds in their districts so that no deaths happen due to lack of oxygen in Delhi. Oxygen is very important so it should be used efficiently. We have to try to prevent oxygen wastage and save as much oxygen as we can. If we can, we should save oxygen and return it to the central government so that it can be used somewhere else,” he said.
The ‘oxygen bulletin’ shared by the Delhi government on Friday stated the city received 577 MT of oxygen on May 6 against the demand of 976 MT. The number of SOS calls have also gradually declined, with the government receiving alert calls and messages from nine hospitals and nursing homes across the city on May 6.
“The 48 oxygen plants coming up should be installed immediately as soon as they reach Delhi. These 48 oxygen plants have a production capacity of 40 tonnes. This will further help in improving Delhi’s oxygen situation. We have to prepare long-term plans and build the capacity of oxygen storage on a very large scale in Delhi. We should also create a special storage capacity for storage of oxygen,” he said.
According to officials, an SOS call was received from Indian Spinal Hospital at 2.30 pm on Thursday about shortage of oxygen supply. Another SOS call was received from Lok Nayak Hospital at 12 pm.
“One metric tonne of oxygen was provided to Indian Spinal Hospital immediately from the oxygen response point created by the Delhi government. Similarly, Lok Nayak’s oxygen demand was met without delay and two metric tonnes of oxygen was made available to them.
Officials, MLAs and ministers from the government are putting their best foot forward to ensure that oxygen demands are met,” said a senior Delhi government official.
During the meeting, the CM also expressed his displeasure that all home isolation patients were still not being given oximeters.
“In any case, it should be ensured that oximeters are given to all patients recovering from Covid in home isolation. We will be able to stop the third wave from coming to Delhi, only by being able to administer vaccines to everyone as soon as possible in the next three months. We need to recruit retired doctors, nurses, and medical staff on a large scale. Whoever wants to help society should join the government and contribute to helping in this difficult situation,” he said.
