AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said that the Capital’s demand for oxygen is 976 metric tonnes (MT) while on May 3, 433 MT was supplied to the Capital. He added that the weekly average of supply over the past seven days was 393 MT against the requirement of 976 MT.
The Delhi government said on Tuesday that it received 41 SOS calls from the hospitals requesting immediate oxygen supply on April 3.
AAP MLA informed that the SOS calls were raised through various mediums, including social media, phone calls, and helplines.
“We provided 21.3 MT of oxygen from our reserves to hospitals that sent out SOS calls. Our efforts will continue but what we need is Delhi to receive oxygen that it needs for the proper care of patients,” Chadha said.
He added that on May 3, 41 hospitals — with 7,142 people on oxygen support — sent SOS calls and the government was able to cater to all 41 calls.
Chadha alleged that Delhi received only 44 per cent of the Oxygen supply the city requires.
“We need 976 MT of oxygen, while what we received on 3rd May from the central government was only 433 MT. Hence, this is just 44% of what we need and what we have demanded from the centre. The gap of 56% between demand and supply in oxygen supply still exists, and the faster we overcome the gap, the faster the SOS calls will decrease,” he said.
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.
Citing the gap between oxygen intake, need, and allocation, Chadha said that due to the shortage of oxygen, the government’s efforts to increase the number of beds for COVID-19 is also being hampered.
“We really hope that the oxygen support is facilitated in all hospitals, and pray for all the people of Delhi. Through this oxygen bulletin, we seek to put all our numbers with transparency and elaborate the gap in oxygen need and allocation. There are 21,000 ICU beds in Delhi that need oxygen. The beds are being rapidly increased by the Kejriwal government. We need 976 MT, and we received only 433 MT yesterday only, which is only 44% of what we need,” he added.