Sisodia writes to Goyal: Raise O2 allocation

New Delhi: Delhi’s nodal minister for Covid-19 management, Manish Sisodia, on Thursday wrote to Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal urging him to increase allocation of oxygen for the national capital from 490 metric tonne (MT) per day to 976MT. Delhi government can’t increase oxygen beds for Covid-19 patients due to shortage of oxygen, he wrote.
The deputy chief minister said Delhi was in the middle of an unprecedented Covid surge, which had stretched its health infrastructure to the maximum level.“Delhi does not have any oxygen plant and is dependent on plants located elsewhere in the country.”
From the initial allocation of 378MT per day, Sisodia wrote, the Centre has increased it to 480MT on April 18 and then to 490MT. “Medical oxygen is being allocated to various Covid hospitals as per the formula prescribed by Government of India. At present, there are 16,272 non-ICU oxygen and 4,866 ICU beds. With the additional beds coming into operation over the next one week, the total estimated requirement of medical oxygen per day is 976MT,” he wrote.
On average, Delhi is recording 25,000 new cases every day and about 10% of them require hospitalisation, including oxygen support, Sisodia said. “Delhi government is creating an additional 15,000 non-ICU and 1,200 ICU beds within one week to 10 days.” It has arranged 5,000 beds at Radha Soami Satsang Beas at Chhatarpur in collaboration with ITBP but just 300 beds are functional due to shortage of oxygen, he said. Similarly, 1,000 beds with Sant Nirankari Mission and 1,500 beds with Sawan Kripal Ruhani Mission in Burari could not also be made functional, he added.
The minister also said the additional allocation had been made from the plants located more than 1,500km from Delhi. Even after about 10 days of the allocation, Delhi has not received the full quota even once, he said, adding “most of our officers and ministers are in the process of rationing the supply of medical oxygen to various Covid hospitals 24x7”.
The government and Delhiites will be extremely grateful to the Centre if it can increase the allocation, preferably from nearby oxygen plants, Sisodia said.