After an acute oxygen shortage was reported in the hospitals treating COVID19 patients in the national capital, the central government has increased the medical oxygen quota for Delhi.

The central government has increased the medical oxygen quota for Delhi from 378 MT per day to 480 MT per day.

Last evening, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had tweeted and begged the central government for additional oxygen supply as hospitals in the national capital had only a couple of hours oxygen left.

Earlier today, in a press statement, Max Healthcare, the largest private healthcare provider in the National Capital Region-Delhi announced that two of its hospitals at Shalimar Bagh and Patparganj have supplies of only two and three hours, respectively. The two hospitals have nearly 550 COVID19 patients.

“We are facing supply uncertainties and delays leading to serious concerns regarding a calamitous incident involving patients being maintained on oxygen,” read the press statement.

Meanwhile, St Stephen’s Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and Sir Irene Hospital, Indraprastha Apollo hospital also complained about oxygen shortage and said their supplies will last a few hours. The first three hospitals depend upon medical oxygen from a plant in Faridabad called Linde India Ltd.

Amid this acute shortage of medical oxygen in the city hospitals, the Centre has announced an increased quota of oxygen for Delhi. And this has come as relief to Kejriwal who tweeted an hour back: “Central govt has increased Delhi’s quota of oxygen. We r very grateful to centre for this (sic).”

Today, the Haryana Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan informed that the “two tankers with a capacity of 31 MT to reach Faridabad Linde plant soon. After they reach Faridabad, oxygen will be supplied to 31 hospitals in Delhi and Gurguram.”

Meanwhile, Haryana’s Health Minister Anil Vij today alleged that a tanker carrying oxygen for a Faridabad hospital was looted by the Delhi government.

Yesterday, key hospitals in Delhi such as Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital were merely hours away from running out of stock. The GTB hospital had almost consumed its stock when later in the night, oxygen tanks arrived at the hospital.

Delhi has reported over 28,000 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. After states of Maharashtra (62,097) and Uttar Pradesh (29,574), Delhi is the third most affected city in the country. At 277, the national capital has reported second highest deaths due to the virus in the country. This data was shared by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare today.