Kejriwal thanks Centre for increasing Oxygen quota

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Tuesday urged the Centre with folded hands to provide medical oxygen to Delhi while his deputy Manish Sisodia said there will be chaos in the city if the stocks are not replenished by Wednesday morning.

New Delhi:Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday thanked the Central government for increasing the national capital's quota of oxygen.

The Chief Minister tweeted, "Central govt has increased Delhi’s quota of oxygen. We r very grateful to centre for this."

Source: Twitter

According to officials, some major government and private hospitals in Delhi also received a fresh stock of medical oxygen in the early hours of Wednesday, averting a crisis just in time.

Read:|Only few hours of Oxygen left in Delhi hospital

This comes after the national capital witnessed a massive surge in COVID-19 cases following which concerns over oxygen supply for patients suffering from infection continued to haunt hospitals across the region.

Chief Minister Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia appealed to the Centre to supply oxygen cylinders to the COVID hospitals in Delhi following an acute shortage of oxygen supply.

Kejriwal had on Sunday termed the shortage of oxygen for coronavirus patients an "emergency".

On Tuesday he stated that Delhi is facing a "serious oxygen crisis," and urged the Centre to provide medical oxygen, saying some hospitals are going to run out of it in a few hours.

Read:|Delhi hospitals face severe oxygn shortage amid surge in COVID cases

As per the Delhi government's report on April 20, a total of 86,526 samples were tested (56,724 RT-PCR and 29,802 Rapid Antigen) in the last 24 hours, of which 28,395 tests were found Covid positive.

A total of 19,430 people were reported recovered from Covid infection till Tuesday night, while a total of 8,07,328 people have recovered so far in Delhi.

The tally of active cases in Delhi has risen to 85,575. With 277 deaths on Tuesday, the capital's death toll reached 12,638.

(with agency inputs)

Read:|Oxygen availability in hospitals of Delhi on Wednesday