Delhi government seeks Army's help to tide over Covid-induced oxygen crisis

delhi oxygen crisis — Image Source : PTI (FILE)
Delhi government seeks Army's help to tide over Covid-induced oxygen crisis

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has demanded help from the Army and the Centre to ramp up transportation of medical oxygen in the city. Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the city hospitals are still facing shortages despite the Centre increasing the quota of medical oxygen to 590 MT.

"We need urgent help to transport oxygen. We have sought help from different sources including the Army, Central government and its different wings, and private sector," he said.

"Yesterday, Delhi received 440 MT of oxygen which is lower than the allocated quota of 590 MT. We need 976 MT oxygen daily as we are increasing the number of beds," the AAP leader added.

On vaccination of the 18+ category, Sisodia said that the city has received 4.5 lakh vaccine doses on May 1 and that the government is in touch with vaccine manufacturers.

"We have given appointments to 45,150 people for vaccination today. People are very eager for taking the vaccines. We hope for 100 per cent turnout," he said.

Vaccination has started at 76 schools of the Delhi government on Monday. With this, vaccination has begun at 301 centres for the 18-45 age group.

"Our target is to make 10 centres at a school. We will continue to expand the number of centers as we receive more vaccines," he said.

Around 90 lakh people in the 18-44 category are eligible for the jabs. Pre-registration has been made mandatory for beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group and there will be no walk-ins for this category for now.

Notably, three big private hospital chains Apollo, Fortis and Max have already started vaccinating people in the 18-45 age group at limited centres from Saturday.

The city government has set a target to vaccinate all adults against coronavirus within the next three months. The government is providing vaccines free of cost.