New Delhi: Delhi’s oxygen requirement, to treat moderate and severe cases of Covid-19 infections, is likely to increase by 269 metric tonnes (MT) in the coming days as it is looking to add more oxygenated non-ICU and ICU beds to its kitty, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has told the Supreme Court in an affidavit.
The affidavit, accessed by ThePrint, states that Delhi is preparing to enhance the number of non-ICU beds with oxygen by 15,000 and ICU beds by 1,200 and, as a result, on the basis of the formula devised by the Centre, the national capital’s requirement for oxygen will increase from 707 MT to 976 MT, a 38 per cent increase.
The affidavit further states that to cater to the eventuality that may arise during the third wave, the Delhi government has also chalked out a strategy to increase the storage capacity for oxygen.
According to the affidavit, the city has so far not been able to store oxygen because the demand has exceeded allocation and the quantity received has been distributed on the same or the next day.
On 8 May, a Supreme Court bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah had reiterated the apex court’s 5 May direction to the Modi government to supply 700 MT oxygen to Delhi.
The affidavit, however, states that pursuant to the 5 May order, Delhi received 730 MT oxygen only once, on 6 May.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing a suo motu cognisance matter on lack of essentials such as drugs, vaccines and oxygen during the pandemic, is likely to take up the Delhi government’s affidavit Thursday.
The court has already formed a National Task Force to devise a new formula for equitable distribution of oxygen to states.
Until the new formula is approved, oxygen allocation will continue on the basis of the formula worked out by the central government.
On its part, the Modi government has labelled Delhi’s demand for oxygen as an overestimation. Opposing Delhi’s plea to ensure 700 MT oxygen is supplied to it every day, the central government had on 5 May maintained that the capital’s optimal oxygen demand should be in the range of 415.43 MT.
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‘Facilities cannot be put to use if there is no oxygen’
According to a Delhi government note, which was cited during the arguments in the suo motu matter in the apex court last week, the national capital needed 707 MT oxygen as on 3 May to cater to the needs of the existing infrastructure. This included 304 MT oxygen for 16,272 non-ICU oxygenated beds and 218 MT for 4,866 ICU beds.
The note said that for all small hospitals having less than 50 beds, the Delhi government had allotted 120 MT oxygen for cylinder refilling. It has also earmarked 28 MT oxygen for the additional 1,500 beds set up at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas, the Commonwealth Games Village and the Yamuna Sports Complex.
The note further said that since 3 May, the Delhi government has added 8,000 non-ICU oxygenated beds, and is likely to add 1,200 more ICU beds – 500 each at the DRDO and Lok Nayak Hospitals and 200 at the Radha Soami Satsang.
The affidavit also states that it is looking to add more beds, including 1,800 non-ICU oxygenated beds that will be set up at the district level.
For now, the affidavit said, the government has commenced operations in a hospital it has built in Dwarka. But due to limited allocation of oxygen, only 250 beds are active. The Delhi government has requested the Centre to earmark more Covid-19 beds in its state-run hospitals and increase it from the current capacity of 3,409, the affidavit added.
However, without adequate supply of oxygen, it submitted, the number of beds for treating Covid-19 patients cannot be increased.
Increase of storage capacity
According to the affidavit, Delhi has total capacity to store 949 MT of oxygen. While there are 15 refillers across the city that have a combined oxygen storage capacity of 258 MT, hospitals can maintain a stock of 691 MT.
Therefore, the state has directed all the refillers to convert their nitrogen and argon tanks into oxygen tanks, for which the Delhi government has already approached the Centre for the requisite clearances.
Additionally, the state is in the process of procuring more cryogenic oxygen storage tanks for which it has invited expression of interests from the manufacturers, its affidavit states.
Meanwhile, a work order has been placed with PWD to build a storage tank of 100 KT and a separate storage facility has been finalised with Inox at its Surajpur Unit.
The Delhi government has also claimed that it has sought a supply of 25,000 D type cylinders from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
Also read: No stone will be left unturned to provide timely supply of oxygen: Cabinet Secretary