As the severe second wave of COVID-19 infections wreaks havoc in the country, one of the most pressing concerns has been a shortage of medical oxygen to treat patients. Numerous reports have been coming in of COVID-19 patients dying not of the disease itself, but because they were unable to get the oxygen support needed even while in hospital. So far, there are details of 178 deaths in which the hospital authorities or local administrations have confirmed oxygen shortage as the proximate cause, and another 70 deaths in which the patients’ families have alleged that the lack of oxygen was to blame but the authorities have not confirmed the allegation.
Several hospitals have even moved high courts asking for their oxygen supply to be replenished on an emergency basis. State governments, too, have pointed fingers both at each other and at the Centre, blaming other governments for blocking supplies. The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to supply 700 metric tonnes of medical oxygen to Delhi everyday till further orders as top hospitals in the national capital have been struggling to tackle an unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submission of the Delhi government on deficient supply of oxygen to the national capital and warned that it will pass orders against officials concerned if 700 MT of LMO is not supplied daily.
“We want 700 MT of oxygen to be supplied to Delhi on a daily basis and we mean business. It has to be supplied and we don’t want to be coercive. Our order will take time to be uploaded by 3 pm. But you proceed and arrange the oxygen,” said Justice DY Chandrachud according to the Bar and Bench.
The Supreme Court said it has constituted an expert panel to conduct an oxygen audit to understand the need of oxygen for every state. “Yesterday we noticed lot of caveats on tankers. We are not going into this… we are not drivers,” Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud told the centre this morning. “If nothing is to be hidden, let it come before the nation how allocation and distribution is done transparently by the centre,” the court had said, adding, “The centre continues to be in contempt for not supplying 700 tonnes of oxygen to Delhi.”
Rahul Mehra, the counsel for the Delhi government said that as of today, at 9 am, 89 MT of oxygen was received by the Delhi government while 16 MT was in transit. On Thursday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Delhi consumes 700 tonnes of oxygen per day. “Delhi’s daily requirement of oxygen is 700 tonnes. We were constantly asking the central government that at least that much oxygen should be given to us. For the first time yesterday, Delhi got 730 tonnes of oxygen,” he had written. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of Delhiites. I request you that Delhi should be given at least this much of oxygen on a daily basis and there should not be any reduction in this quantity. The whole of Delhi will be grateful to you,” he said.
Last week, 12 people, including a doctor, died at Delhi’s Batra Hospital on Saturday after the facility ran out of oxygen. A week before that 25 people died due to shortage of low oxygen pressure at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in the city. However, the hospital later said the cause of death of 21 of those patients could not be ascertained by an expert committee which probed the incident.
