Covid cases dip, Delhi’s daily oxygen demand down to 582MT, says Sisodia

On an average, Delhi is now getting 579.25MT oxygen on a daily basis, of which 42% is being supplied by the railways and 58% is coming through roadways, data showed. Until last week, the share was 29% through railways and 71% through roadways

The Delhi government on Thursday said it has scaled down its requirement of medical oxygen from 700MT to 582MT in view of the declining daily Covid-19 cases in the national Capital.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. (File photo)

“As of today, the positivity rate has come down to 14% and around 10,400 new Covid-19 cases were reported. Now that cases are reducing, we are seeing a decrease in demand for beds and medical oxygen. When daily cases were peaking around 15 days ago, our calculations, factoring in bed occupancy and active cases, showed Delhi required 700MT of oxygen. But today, after assessment of the Covid-19 situation, Delhi’s oxygen need has been revised to 582MT per day. As a responsible government, we will give the surplus oxygen to the states who need it,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said in a press briefing on Thursday.

On an average, Delhi is now getting 579.25MT oxygen on a daily basis, of which 42% is being supplied by the railways and 58% is coming through roadways, data showed. Until last week, the share was 29% through railways and 71% through roadways.

The hospital bed occupancy in the city is fluctuating between 19,000-20,000, records showed.

Sisodia said the Delhi government has also written to the Centre about the revised oxygen demand for the city. He thanked the Centre, the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court for coming to the aid of the people of Delhi in times of distress.

At its peak, Delhi recorded 28,395 cases on April 20, soon after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal expanded the night and weekend curfew protocols into a lockdown. That protocol has now been renewed several times, and will stay at least till May 17 in order to further flatten the curve.

The reduction in the oxygen demand for Delhi comes days after the Supreme Court on May 8 ordered an audit of supply, distribution and utilisation of oxygen supply in the national Capital. The SC set up a panel comprising AIIMS director Rnadeep Guleria, Max hospital’s Sandeep Budhiraja and an IAS officer each from the Central and Delhi governments to conduct the audit.