Delhi Police create green corridors for movement of oxygen containers

Ever since Covid hospitals started running low on oxygen, the police have been receiving requests from individuals and hospitals to help arrange oxygen.

Police on Tuesday evening again stepped in to create a green corridor and resolve the oxygen shortage at a north Delhi Covid-19 hospital, after being alerted about an agitation by anxious relatives of 80 Covid patients admitted there.

Police said it took them exactly 98 minutes to arrange the cylinders for NKS Super Speciality Hospital in Gulabi Bagh. (File Photo. Representative image)

Police said it took them exactly 98 minutes to arrange the cylinders for NKS Super Speciality Hospital in Gulabi Bagh.

Ever since Covid hospitals started running low on oxygen, the police have been receiving requests from individuals and hospitals to help arrange oxygen.

On Sunday, the outer Delhi district police arranged 20 cylinders for a hospital in Nangloi where 35 patients were admitted. The south-east police arranged 15 cylinders for the Holy Family Hospital and Jeevan Hospital.

On Wednesday, the police arranged oxygen for several hospitals and individuals across the city. According to the NKS Super Speciality Hospital CEO, DS Chatwal, nearly 80 of the 102 Covid patients there were dependent on oxygen and the supply was depleting by late Tuesday.

“We had movable small cylinders as a last resort. Lives of 80 patients were at risk,” said Chatwal.

Relatives of these 80 patients grew restless when they got to know of the shortage. “They began agitating and the situation was taking an untoward turn when the hospital made a distress call to the police,” said Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (north).

The DCP and other officers reached the hospital soon after. “We pacified the relatives and then began arranging the oxygen,” said Alphonse.

Police got 53 empty cylinders refilled on priority from a unit in Mayapuri Industrial Area, after speaking to its owner. The team set off for the hospital the moment the first set of 15 cylinders were filled. “We set up a green corridor and covered a distance of 13km in less than 20 minutes,” said a police officer. The 15 cylinders reached by 6.08pm and the remaining 38 an hour later, police said.