New Delhi: Looking to airlift medical oxygen from Odisha

Faced with acute shortage of medical oxygen in the wake of sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, Delhi is now looking to airlift medical oxygen from Odisha, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.

The requirement for medical oxygen in the city is currently about 700 tonnes and even after the Centre’s intervention on Wednesday, the daily quota has been hiked to 480 tonnes from the earlier level of 378 tonnes.

As much as 70 tonnes of the increased quota of 100 tonnes has to come from Odisha. Since it will take 72 hours for it to reach by road, Delhi is now looking to airlift it. “We are trying to airlift oxygen from Odisha”, Kejriwal told a press conference on Thursday. Delhi does not have any production capacity for medical oxygen. The remaining 30 tonnes of increased quota has to come from West Bengal, sources said.

The Chief Minister thanked the Centre and the Delhi High Court for their efforts to help meet the increased demand of medical oxygen due to rise in Covid-19 cases. At the same time, he highlighted that the Delhi’s requirement is 700 tonnes.

New Cases Drop
Meanwhile, Delhi reported 24,638 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours to Wednesday, lower than the 28,395 cases reported in the previous day. Part of the reason for the drop in new Covid-19 cases could be the near 9 per cent dip in tests at 78,768 tests (86,526 tests).

Test positivity rate remained high at 31.28 per cent — one in three persons tested were turning Covid-19 positive, latest Delhi State Health Bulletin showed.

As many as 249 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, lower than 277 in the previous day. The overall death toll in the capital has risen to 12,887.

Delhi currently has 85,364 active cases of Covid-19. As many as 4,632 out of the 4,650 ICU beds for these patients were occupied.

The number of containment zones in the capital stood at 19,624. The cumulative positivity rate is 5.64 per cent, which is a cause for worry as it is above the 5 per cent mark. The Hindu BusinessLine