Delhi is likely to extend the lockdown by another week as rising coronavirus cases continues to wreak havoc in the national capital. The city's healthcare system has crumbled under the immense pressure with many hospitals running out of oxygen and beds. The city is currently under a lockdown after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week announced six-day lockdown till Monday.
An order announcing another week of lockdown is likely to be issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) today, as mentioned in a report in NDTV.
Announcing the lockdown last week, CM Kejriwal had said that it is necessary keeping in mind the city's resources that are at a breaking point. "If we don't impose a lockdown now, we might face a bigger calamity. The government will take full care of you. We took this tough decision taking the situation into consideration," he added.
Many hospitals in the city ran out of oxygen leading to deaths of patients on oxygen support. Twenty-five people died each at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi due to shortage of oxygen. Admissions to the emergency department of the AIIMS were restricted for around an hour as the oxygen pipelines were being reorganised due to an increased demand for the life-saving gas. Moolchand Hospital too appealed to the government to replenish its oxygen stock. Max Hospital said that it would not admit any more patients till it gets oxygen supply and later deleted the tweet.
In an appeal to all chief ministers last evening, Kejriwal said, "I am writing to all CMs requesting them to provide oxygen to Delhi, if they have spare. Though the Central government. is also helping us, the severity of corona is such that all available resources are proving inadequate."
Delhi High Court while hearing a hospital's petition on oxygen crisis said that if anyone obstructs oxygen supply then they will hang the man. The court also questioned the centre over the preparedness to tackle with the second wave. "We are calling it a wave, it is actually a Tsunami," the court said.