The vitriolic flak the central government received from the Delhi High Court & the Supreme Court seemed to have had no effect in shaking away the apathetic condition.

After spending a year exporting Oxygen, GOI is now clamouring for its imports and production as the Oxygen crisis is staring it right in its eyes.

A total of twenty patients who were suffering from coronavirus disease (Covid-19), most of who were admitted to the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini, Delhi, died due to low oxygen pressure as the hospital’s oxygen stock ran dry. Officials of the hospital disclosed this in a statement.

Dr Depp Baluja, medical director of the hospital, said, “We lost 20 patients almost all of whom were in critical care unit and on a high flow of oxygen. Our liquid medical oxygen was over by about 10 pm and then we switched over to the oxygen cylinders. There was a drop in pressure and the patients could not survive.”

The hospital was to receive its quota of medical oxygen at 05:30 pm but the supply did not reach it till midnight. Even then, the hospital received just 40% of its allocated quota and is again in a situation of crisis.

In this regard, Dr Baluja added, “We are again in a situation of crisis, 200 lives are on the line. Last night we were at least able to save most patients. We will not be able to do that today. We have exhausted our backup.”  The hospital has probably another 30 minutes of supply left.

To tackle the Oxygen deficit, the Centre is planning to import Oxygen tankers from Singapore, UAE & other places. This comes in a situation when it was found that January 2021 export of Oxygen was 734% higher than that in January 2020, showing a careless indifferent attitude of the government towards the impending Oxygen crisis. The centre has asked the states to revive all closed plants.

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A few days back on April 21, as India reported the largest single-day spike of nearly 316, 000 Covid-19 cases, several hospitals across the country expressed their inability to treat patients in the wake of acute oxygen shortage. On that same day, Max Healthcare, which runs 14 hospitals across the national capital region, had filed an urgent plea with the Delhi high court citing an acute shortage of oxygen. Max had informed the court that it was left with only three hours of oxygen. It said that if that ran out, the lives of 400 patients, of which 262 were suffering from Covid-19, would be under threat.

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In Gurugram, the hospitals continue to suffer from an acute shortage of oxygen on Friday despite the district administration saying that it was getting enough supply from two plants in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Dr Devlina Chakravarty, managing director of Artemis Hospital, tweeted the situation at her hospital, stating, “Artemis hospital Gurgaon is in its last leg of oxygen. Last night’s commitment of oxygen replenishment remained unfilled. Only 3 hours to go!!! Please help us urgently (sic).”

She also added, “Every morning we have to make numerous calls to get a 24-hour supply. Doctors and other health care staff are fatigued working round-the-clock. Lack of basic support such as oxygen can break their backs. It is a pity that we are not able to help hundreds of people coming to our ER, gasping for breath. We have stopped chasing the lack of Remdesivir, Tocilizumab, ventilators. We request all now to provide us the very basic uninterrupted supply of oxygen.”