Amajor crisis was averted on Tuesday night in a number of Delhi hospitals treating critical Covid-19 patients. Several government and private hospitals had oxygen stock for only a few hours while some had already exhausted their stock.

An SOS call came from Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Twitter making an appeal to Union minister Piyush Goyal to restore oxygen supply from a plant in Uttar Pradesh. The timely arrival of oxygen containers averted a major crisis. However, the hospitals remain on the edge despite the oxygen supply.

Current oxygen status at Delhi hospitals

Oxygen status at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital at 9 am on Wednesday was about 11,000 cubic meters. On Tuesday evening, 4,500 cubic meters were supplied by a private vendor and another 6,000 cubic meters by Inox. The hospital chairman has said the stocks should last till 9 am on Thursday, but not beyond that.

Dr S Rana, chairman of the hospital said, "Indian Oxygen Limited and Inox have promised to refill the tanks during the day."

Meanwhile, LNJP Hospital has said it received 10 tonnes of oxygen on Tuesday night and has sufficient for now. Similarly, Deen Dayal Hospital has also said after the supply at night, it has sufficient stocks for now.

An official at the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital said on Wednesday morning, "We received more than 100 cylinders of oxygen in the night and morning, which is sufficient for the next 8 hours."

Oxygen supply prevents chaos in Delhi

An official at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital confirmed that a truck carrying oxygen from a firm reached them around 1:30 am.

Dr Suresh Kumar, medical director of the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said a truck carrying oxygen from a vendor reached the facility around 3 am.

Ambedkar Hospital received fresh supply of oxygen at 5 am which officials said can last till 24 hours.

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

"Most hospitals in Delhi have only eight to 12 hours of oxygen left. We have been asking the Centre to increase its supply for the last seven days. There will be chaos in Delhi if hospitals do not get enough oxygen by Wednesday morning," Sisodia had tweeted in Hindi.

A record 28,395 coronavirus cases and 277 deaths marked the acute crisis in Delhi on Tuesday as the positivity rate shot up to 32.82% -- meaning every third sample came out positive -- amid a "serious oxygen crisis" unfolding in the city.