Oxygen crisis in Delhi: 12 die in Batra Hospital, irate HC asks Centre to supply O2 or face contempt

Twelve patients at Delhis Batra Hospital including a senior doctor died on Saturday and at least two other hospitals reported precipitous drops in their oxygen stocks as the Delhi High Court stepped in and directed the Centre to provide the city with oxygen today itself or face contemptWith the death of the 12 patients in the south Delhi hospital which announced at 1230 pm that it had run out of oxygen the number of hospital patients who have lost their lives in the deepening crisis in the last eight days has gone up to 57Water has gone above the head Now we mean business Enough is enough a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said and asked the Centre to supply 490 metric tonnes of allocated oxygen to the national capital on Saturday itself or face contemptDo you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi the bench asked when the Centres counsel said the oxygen crisis is also before the Supreme Court which will make its order public on SaturdayIt also declined the Centres request to defer the order till Monday or for halfanhour The toughtalking court said the Centre has made an allocation of 490 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and stated You fulfill itAs the court heard the case time was running out for other critically ill patients in Batra and other placesBatra first reported the deaths of eight and revised the toll to 12 by eveningWe are trying to resuscitate five other critical patients Dr S C L Gupta medical director of Batra hospital told PTI earlier in the daySix of the patients who died were admitted to the ICU he said Among those who died due to the lack of oxygen were Dr R K Himthani head of the gastroenterology department who had been admitted to the hospital for the last 1520 daysHe said the government had sent out SOS messages about oxygen shortage on Saturday The hospital had informed authorities about lack of oxygen in the morning when only 2500 litres leftThen at around 1230 pm hospital authorities claimed they had run out of oxygen The tanker arrived at 135 pmDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed his anguish on TwitterDescribing the news as very painful he said Their lives could have been saved by giving them oxygen on time Delhi should get its quota of oxygen Cant see our people dying like thisDelhi he said in his Twitter post in Hindi needs 976 tonnes of oxygen but received only 312 tonnes on Friday How will Delhi breathe in such less oxygen he asked following news of the deaths in BatraOn April 23 25 sickest patients died at the Ganga Ram hospital The next day 20 died at Jaipur Golden Hospital as the frantic hunt for oxygen continued while COVID19 cases surgedJust over a week later the crisis played out in other healthcare facilities in the national capital with hospitals flagging their dwindling stocksFortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage The hospital has four hours of oxygen left sources told PTI on Saturday afternoon According to the Delhi Corona app the hospital has 106 Covid patientsSehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh also sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen stocksWe request urgent assistance in getting SOSoxygen We are running out of our backup supply and have been waiting for a supply since early morning We have 90 patients on O2 amp 13 in ICU the hospital said in a tweet around 1240 pmOn Friday Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said not for a single day has Delhi been able to receive the allocated quantity of 490 MT of oxygenOn Friday the city recorded 375 deaths due to COVID19 and 27047 fresh cases with a positivity rate of 3269 per cent It was the ninth consecutive day of Delhi recording 300 coronavirusrelated deaths