Oxygen shortage hits Delhi govt’s plan to boost capacity of Covid care centre

However, state officials said they cannot add oxygen beds at Covid care centres till supply bottlenecks are overcome.

The severe shortage of oxygen in Delhi has adversely affected the government’s plan to bolster the capacity of Covid-19 care facilities, especially the major centres in Chhatarpur, Commonwealth Games Village and Yamuna Sports Complex – during the ongoing six-day lockdown.

On Thursday, these three facilities collectively had 1,390 total beds – of which 400 beds were equipped with oxygen.

On Thursday, these three facilities collectively had 1,390 total beds – of which 400 beds were equipped with oxygen. As per the government’s augmentation plan, these three centres should have had 1,875 oxygen beds by Tuesday (April 20), said a senior government official.

The centre set up at the Radhasoami Satsang Beas’s Chhatarpur campus is vacant right now, despite being reopened on April 20 with 250 beds. In an April 20 order, the Delhi government said the Chhatarpur facility will be attached with Madan Mohan Malviya hospital, which will provide the centre with doctors, nurses, paramedics and at least 10 dedicated ambulances.

“The district administration has not been able to provide the facility with oxygen beds. We plan to reopen the centre again by Saturday with 500 oxygen beds. Oxygen supply is likely to be normalised by then,” said a senior revenue department official.

Similarly, plans to run temporary care facilities at the CWG village and Yamuna complex — that collectively have 1,140 beds, of which 400 are oxygen-equipped — have also been interrupted by the shortage, which chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and health minister Satyendar Jain have flagged repeatedly over the past few days.

These two shelters should have had 1,375 beds – all with oxygen facilities – by April 20, said the first government official.

The care centre in the CWG village was opened on Wednesday with 460 beds, of which 200 have oxygen facilities. Similarly, the centre in Yamuna Sports Complex was also opened on Wednesday, with 680 beds, of which 200 have oxygen facilities.

“All oxygen beds are occupied in the two centres, and we are also facing a major shortage of oxygen. There is little scope of increasing the number of oxygen beds unless the shortage is resolved,” said a senior official in the district administration of east Delhi, where the two centres are located.

As Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the lockdown on Monday, he said the curbs would help the state government augment the city’s health care infrastructure, which has been brought to the brink by the alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths. Delhi on Thursday added 26,169 cases and 306 deaths. Of the 20,448 Covid-19 beds in the city, 18,282 were occupied as of 7pm, the Delhi Corona app showed. Alarmingly, only 18 of the 4,684 intensive care unit beds were vacant, the portal showed.

Delhi’s demand for medical oxygen has nearly tripled due to the devastating surge, with hospitals forced to send out distress calls to authorities, which have pitted the Capital’s government against the administrations in neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, forcing the Centre to intervene.

The Centre on Thursday meanwhile ordered that there should be no restrictions on the movement of medical oxygen between states, and that transport authorities shall be instructed to accordingly allow free inter-state movement of vehicles carrying oxygen.

However, state officials said they cannot add oxygen beds at Covid care centres till supply bottlenecks are overcome.

A Delhi government spokesperson said: “We have the required infrastructure to augment beds in Covid-19 facilities. The problem is the supply of oxygen. The augmentation plan will face no difficulties if they supply of oxygen is stable. Supply of oxygen across the country is regulated by the central government and every state has an allocated quota. Delhi has been facing a major shortage of medical oxygen. While the central government has increased the state’s allocation to 480 MT (from 378 MT) per day, the city’s current demand is more than 700 MT per day. Secondly, Delhi is also not getting the allocated oxygen because authorities in neighbouring states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are stopping oxygen tankers, interrupting the supply. We have urged the central government to immediately intervene in this regard. Yesterday, Delhi received only 178 MT oxygen against the old quota of 378 MT.”