Delhi gets 1st oxygen plant at Commonwealth Games village's Covid care centre

Reeling under a huge shortage of medical oxygen, the national capital of Delhi has got its first Covid care centre with its own oxygen plant at the Commonwealth Games village. The oxygen plant has a capacity to produce about 1,500 litres of oxygen. All beds at the Covid care centre have a direct connectivity with the plant, which makes it easier to supply oxygen to patients.

The oxygen equipment has been brought from abroad by the association Doctors for You. Delhi, like many other cities, has been grappling with shortage of oxygen and insufficient beds as Covid-19 cases continue to rise at an unprecedented pace. Some hospitals in Delhi on Sunday even sent an SOS call to authorities about their dwindling oxygen stocks and another one even asked the authorities to shift its Covid-infected patients due to the lack of facilities.

Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital in Malviya Nagar on Sunday sounded an alarm, saying 50 people were at "risk", including newborns, as their stock dried out. Another hospital, Batra Hospital, in Delhi that faced an oxygen shortage for about 80 minutes on Saturday saw 12 Covid-19 patients, including a senior doctor dying due to shortage of oxygen.

Just two weeks before, 20 coronavirus patients had died at Jaipur Golden Hospital and 25 patients at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital due to the shortage of oxygen. The situation is no different in many other hospitals of the national capital. Delhi has been receiving about 490 MT medical oxygen from the Centre against the Kejriwal government's demand of 976 metric tonnes oxygen. The government had received only 312 MT oxygen on Friday.

Delhi reported 20,394 new Covid-19 cases and 407 fatalities as coronavirus continues to rage in the national capital. Around 24,444 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day. Sunday's number of deaths is the second highest after 412 deaths reported on Saturday, which was the highest ever deaths due to Covid-19 in Delhi. The metro city's active cases tally now stands at 92,290. Total cases stand at 11.9 lakh and deaths at 16,966.

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