Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 23
Delhi’s oxygen emergency entered the fourth day today with 25 critical Covid patients dying at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital amid supply shortages and many facilities moving the High Court for help. Oxygen supplies far from stabilising, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met CMs of 11 high-burden states, including Delhi, and said the Indian Air Force and Railways had been deployed to reduce travel time for oxygen supplies.
After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal told the meeting that Haryana and UP had been obstructing Delhi’s oxygen supplies, the PM said every state must ensure no oxygen tanker was stopped or stranded. Later in the day, the MHA said it had written to all states/ UTs to provide adequate security and exclusive corridors to oxygen transporting vehicles.
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Though the PM today also met leading oxygen manufacturers, including Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, urging them to boost supplies, the ground situation remained grim with India logging 3,32,730 daily cases in another world record. Delhi continued to remain the third top contributor to the burden with 26,995 cases and more 350 deaths.
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In worrisome new evidence, the National Centre for Disease Control said the Delhi surge was directly correlated to the UK variant. “We have seen a rise in the proportion of the UK variant from 28 per cent of Delhi’s genome sequenced samples in the second week of March to 50 per cent in the last week of March. The surge in Delhi directly correlates with the UK variant. Nationally, we have sequenced 15,135 samples and found 1,735 (11%) variants of concern,” SK Singh, Director, NCDC, said, not ruling out challenging times ahead.
PM’s assurances of smooth supplies apart, Ganga Ram Hospital had not received any supplies till 9 pm when the hospital was left with 800 cubic metres of oxygen lasting just 45 minutes.
At Ganga Ram Hospital, a tanker entered the facility late at 11 pm on Friday to deliver oxygen for 140 critical patients. Reeling under oxygen shortage, the hospital was on the brink with just half an hour supply left for the night. A tanker arrived in the “nick of time,” said Ganga Ram PRO Ajoy Sehgal. “The oxygen tanker has given us half a tonne, which is sufficient for for 1.5 hours. Hopefully, by that time INOX tanker should arrive. It will be a long night.”
Such was the desperation of hospital managements that Ganga Ram, Bram Healthcare and Batra Hospitals approached the High Court with an SOS.
Outside Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, relatives expressed shock at the state or affairs. A wailing wife whose husband was refused admission asked: “Aise kaise chalega?”
Cries of disbelief rented the air outside all Delhi hospitals even as Kejriwal was chided by the PM for live telecasting his remarks at the meet where he asked the PM to tell Haryana and UP not to obstruct Delhi’s oxygen tankers. The PM urged states to come down heavily on hoarders and black marketers of essential medicines and injections and acknowledged that Covid was now affecting Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities at once.
“We are working on all options to reduce the travel time and turnaround time of oxygen tankers,” the PM said.
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