Over the last few weeks as COVID-19 cases soared to record highs, Delhi has emerged as the single worst affected city, with nearly one lakh active cases. Hospitals in the national capital have repeatedly made headlines for oxygen shortages, even as countless individuals take to social media platforms seeking essential drugs, and other medical supplies.
Even as the Delhi High Court continues to hold daily hearings and the government as well as private entities scramble to help Delhi cope, hospitals appear to be operating on a day to day basis. SOS messages can now be seen on a near daily basis, with many hospitals sounding the alarm, only to assure some time later that they had received fresh oxygen supplies - enough to last a few more hours.
Since Sunday night, multiple hospitals in the city have taken to Twitter seeking only to assure later that their requirements for the next few hours had been met. "Gandhi Hospital, Uttam Nagar, Delhi has serious oxygen issue. Can someone help," urged actor Sonu Sood on Monday morning. Soon after this hospital officials as well as IAS officer Sanjeev Gupta came forward to assure that the hospital had "received reserve SOS cylinders last night and had resolved the situation temporarily".
A similar set of events played out in Delhi's Vimhans hospital with Suhel Seth tweeting last night that only 3.5 hours worth of oxygen. With AAP leader Raghav Chadha stepping in, the most recent update indicates that the hospital had received 3 MT of liquid oxygen.
Aakash Healthcare issued a "cry for help" on Sunday afternoon stating that they had oxygen supplies that would "not last more than 60 minutes". Hours later, they tweeted an update that they had gotten enough oxygen supplies to "tide over the night".