Delhi government has appointed  3 IAS officers and more than 20 call centre executives to ensure smooth functioning of Oxygen supply and distribution

“Under the leadership of CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi government has appointed  3 IAS officers and more than 20 call centre executives to ensure smooth functioning of Oxygen supply and distribution.”

New Delhi, May 04, 2021:

Today the oxygen supply touched 450 metric tonnes and by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, the supply should touch the range of 500 metric tonnes. The Kejriwal government has been making all the efforts to assist the citizens in this tough time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is working on strengthening the supply chain management of oxygen. The Delhi government is working round the clock to improve the distribution network of oxygen in the National Capital. Senior health officials of the Delhi government on Tuesday briefed the media about the matters related to Oxygen supply and healthcare management over a zoom meeting.

The demand of oxygen in Delhi is that of approximately 976 metric tonnes by 11 May 2021. The central government has allocated 590 metric tonnes of oxygen to the government of Delhi. To ensure that there is no shortage of oxygen, the Delhi government is working to make sure that the supply chain is robust and efficient, the movement of oxygen is regular, with the suppliers supplying the oxygen to Delhi as per the prescribed roster.

Oxygen is to be supplied to Delhi from nearby districts such as Roorkee, Panipat, Ghaziabad etc. to make it more robust and time-efficient. At present, the oxygen supply is coming from far off places like mostly from the eastern part of the country resulting in a higher turnaround time.

The day before yesterday the railway movement of oxygen has started and 120 metric tons of oxygen arrived at the Tughlakabad railway station. The Delhi Government is closely coordinating with the officials from the Government of India to meet the desired demand for oxygen in the National Capital. Senior officials from the railway Ministry, IOCL and Concorde have been designated to make a sure undisturbed supply of oxygen to Delhi. The government of India provided Delhi with additional 07 ISO containers. Delhi Government has also deputed a team of officers to each of the oxygen plant locations, this team make sure that there are no glitches and any administrative obstacles in the oxygen supply to Delhi.

The barometer to find the severity of the situation is monitored on a daily basis with the help of SOS alerts. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Government’s endeavour is to improve the distribution network of oxygen within Delhi by overcoming all the hurdles. Big hospitals in the national Capital use liquid oxygen and the smaller health care institutions are using a mix of liquid oxygen and gas cylinders.

Within Delhi there are 14 refillers, these refillers get the liquid oxygen from the different suppliers, they fill up the gas cylinders and provide them to different institutions. One-fourth of Delhi’s oxygen supply is dependent on the cylinders. To overcome this Delhi Government has decentralized the system and given the powers to the respective DM’s to ensure smooth functioning. Teams have been formed under the Divisional Commissioners which is closely monitoring and tracking the movements of the tankers. Delhi has prepared a fair distribution and allocation strategy for the optimal utilization of the given oxygen. Many NGO’s and Religious organizations are extending a great helping hand to fight this pandemic. A 24*7 emergency helpline is formed for the oxygen crisis with 03 IAS officers and more than 20 call centre executives are working day and night to ensure smooth functioning.

The Delhi government is also working to increase the bed capacity within the city to be able to deal with the rising number of COVID cases. The Government is trying to increase the bed capacity in the Government hospitals from 5200 to 7200 beds.  The Delhi government is working round-the-clock to convert non-Covid hospitals into Covid care hospitals to increase the capacity of beds. In terms of vaccinations, the National Capital on 03.05.2021 administrated 89297 vaccines. The first dose of vaccination was given to more than 61000 beneficiaries.