Delhi: As oxygen supply ramps up, SOS calls from hospitals reduces by over 80%


As the hospitals in the national capital still struggle with a shortage of oxygen amid a spurt in coronavirus cases, a magnitude reduction of 81.25 per cent in SOS calls from Delhi hospitals is noted in the last few days as the Centre provides more oxygen to the city.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha informed on Friday that authorities received 9 SOS calls from hospitals over oxygen shortage on Thursday and 5.1 MT of the life-saving gas was provided to these healthcare facilities.

“Yesterday, we received SOS calls only from 9 hospital, and we addressed all 9 of these. To these 9 SOS calls, we delivered 5.10 MT of oxygen. Approximately 909 beds were on oxygen support beds in these 9 hospitals,” he informed.

A magnitude drop in the SOS calls from the hospitals is noted in the last three days. The number of SOS calls from the hospitals reduced to 9 on Thursday against the 48 calls received on Tuesday while 16 SOS requests were reported on Thursday, as per the oxygen bulletin which Chadha presents every evening since the start of the week.

The Delhi government on May 4 released its first Oxygen Bulletin to keep the public aware regarding the demand and supply of oxygen in the Capital.

However, Chadha, who is also the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board, is wary of a non-0uniformed supply of medical oxygen to the city.

The city witnessed a drop of 153 metric tonnes in oxygen supply on Thursday as against Wednesday’s allocation of 730MT, he said.

“Delhi received only 577 metric tonnes, which is around 25 per cent less than what we were given on Wednesday. I would like to request the central government that like they delivered 730 MT on May 5, similarly, they should supply oxygen to us in sufficient amounts on a regular and continuous manner,” Chadha added.