A day of anxiety, confusion & helplessness for officials dealing with oxygen demand
NEW DELHI: As the panic gathered around the Capital over the fate of almost 18,000 Covid-19 patients admitted to Delhi’s hospitals that were quickly running out of medical oxygen on Wednesday, officials working on the ground to ensure oxygen supply and district officials trying to handle the demand requests and SOS messages from hospitals were overwhelmed with the crisis.
According to multiple senior officials, several hospitals across the city were somehow keeping their patients alive with just a few hours of oxygen left and District Magistrates in Haryana had been directed not to allow suppliers out of the state to reach Delhi.
One senior official in the Delhi government said that the Capital does not have its oxygen production plant yet and the one that was supposed to have been started will take at least one week to start.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday also said that Delhi does not produce its own oxygen and no states can own the oxygen suppliers in their state produce. He insisted that the Centre controls the supply of oxygen as per law and that states cannot usurp the supply or refuse to supply the agreed quota.
In fact, sources said that even as per the earlier quota to Delhi of 387 MT, the full supply was not being allowed to reach the Capital by local authorities in UP and Haryana. He said, “On Monday and Tuesday, around 240 metric tonnes and 365 metric tonnes of oxygen were supplied to Delhi. Even our quota was 387 MT against the actual requirement of 700 MT.”
But even as officials scrambled to get oxygen cylinders to hospitals and nursing homes already rationing their supply, those appointed to constantly monitor the oxygen situation in hospitals by the Delhi government were directed to immediately stop the panic purchase of oxygen and only redirect supplies to where absolutely needed.
Expressing hopelessness, one senior official said that there were only two more options left - one for the Centre to increase the quota as required, which was done but not to the levels we needed and the other that the Centre immediately diverts all oxygen being used for all industries to save lives.
However, the Delhi High Court had come up with a third option and ordered the Centre to divert all industrial oxygen immediately in a strongly-worded order during an emergency hearing.