The Delhi government on Saturday received only 499 metric tonnes, or 71%, of the total quantity of daily medical oxygen that the Supreme Court had mandated, according to a government bulletin on oxygen.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre to provide at least 700 metric tonnes of oxygen a day to Delhi. The court made the order while staying a contempt notice from the High Court for the government’s failure to immediately supply the full quota of oxygen to the Capital city during the coronavirus crisis.

“Only 71% of the quantity directed by SC, supplied by [Narendra] Modi government,” the Aam Aadmi Party said, tweeting the oxygen bulletin of the Capital.

The bulletin also noted that the average oxygen supplied to Delhi over the last seven days was 533 metric tonnes. “Oxygen supplied [weekly average] as a percentage of quantity directed by Hon’ble SC was 76%”, the bulletin said.

On Saturday, four medical facilities in Delhi, which had 1,271 beds in total, sent out SOS for oxygen and the state government supplied them with 15.5 metric tonnes, the bulletin showed.

The national Capital’s healthcare infrastructure has been in shambles ever since the second wave of Covid-19 led to an unprecedented rise in daily infections. Multiple hospitals in the city were forced to approach courts to ensure they received supplies of medical oxygen to save lives of Covid-19 patients.

Due to a surge in Covid-19 infections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that his administration had decided to extend the lockdown in the Capital till May 17. The chief minister also announced that the Delhi Metro will stop operations from Monday.

India on Sunday registered 4,03,738 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of infections in the country to 2,22,96,414 since the pandemic broke out last year. The country’s toll climbed by 4,092 deaths to 2,42,362. The country now has over 37 lakh active cases and 1,83,17,404 recoveries.

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