The Delhi High Court on Friday instructed all hospitals and nursing facilities in the Capital to approach the nodal officer with their requests for oxygen supplies, reported India Today.

The bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli was hearing petitions moved by two hospitals, Bram Healthcare and Batra Hospital, seeking supply of oxygen. This came a day after the court heard similar pleas from Max Hospitals and Saroj Super Specialty Hospital in Delhi’s Rohini area.

“There are 92 Covid patients,” Bram Hospital counsel Priyadarshi Manish said, according to Bar and Bench. “I [Bram hospital] have three hours storage of oxygen. My vendor is not supplying. Kindly direct them to ensure supply of 120 to 150 cylinders.”

Senior lawyer Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said that the administration has notified a number of refilling centres and appointed nodal officials. He added that the Capital received 350 metric tonnes that is the highest so far.

“There is a system in place,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said. “There is a nodal officer for the Delhi government and the central unit. They interact. The prime minister has impressed upon all the chief ministers to not interfere with free flow of oxygen.”

The central government’s counsel also said that a few more officials will be added to the control room. The states have also been asked to make sure that details of their nodal officers were given to hospitals, Mehta added.

The Delhi government also informed the court about the allocation of oxygen. “We received 345 to 350 against 480 metric tonnes (and 30 more)...we have 100 deficit,” he said. “We keep accumulating this 100 metric tonnes every day.”

The Delhi government lawyer also pointed out that many hospitals in the city were being forced to not admit patients. “There is another problem, across Delhi they are not taking fresh admissions in hospitals,” Mehra said, according to Live Law. “So even beds which are available are not available.

The court remarked that the Centre had assured 480 metric tonnes to Delhi but the supplies had not arrived. The High Court also stressed on the fact that the shortage exists even though there were allocations from Uttarakhand’s Roorkee and West Bengal’s Durgapur.

The Delhi High Court also asked for information on the installation of oxygen generators and highlighted that all aspects must be covered and compliances should be submitted in a tabulated format.

Following the observations, the case was listed for April 26.

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Oxygen crisis in India

Several states have flagged a shortage of oxygen supplies amid a sharp surge in Covid-19 cases in the country. The Centre on Thursday ordered that no restrictions should be imposed on the movement of medical oxygen between states as hospitals across the country are scrambling to look for supplies during the second wave of the pandemic.

The home ministry’s order was issued under the Disaster Management Act, which states that no restrictions can be imposed on the inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Centre to ensure that oxygen supplies and its transportation remained undisrupted and asked the Union government to provide adequate security to the transporting vehicles and create special corridors. On Wednesday, the High Court said it was “shocked and dismayed” to see that the Centre does not seem to be mindful of the “extremely urgent” need of medical oxygen in the country to treat Covid-19 patients.

India’s healthcare infrastructure is reeling under the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as thousands of new coronavirus cases emerge every day. This has led to a chronic shortage of oxygen supplies, beds and timely medical care.

India on Friday registered another global high of 3,32,730 coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally in the country to 1,62,63,695 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The country also registered its highest toll at 2,263. With this, the total number of fatalities climbed to 1,86,920.