Delhi faces acute shortage of oxygen, ICU beds: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the national capital is facing an acute shortage of critical components important in saving the lives of people infected with Covid-19.

The national capital is witnessing record daily rise in Covid-19 cases for the last one week. Kejriwal said in a media briefing that the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has become "very serious and worrisome", and oxygen, Remdesivir and tocilizumab for patients are in short supply.

Kejriwal said," Delhi has a limited number of ICU beds. Oxygen and ICU beds are decreasing very sharply. We are taking several steps to scale up bed capacity. Directions have been given to take strict action against people who will found hoarding or black marketing of medicines."

According to the Delhi CM around 24,000 Covid cases have been reported in Delhi in the last 24 hours and he said that the Delhi government will keep a close eye on the situation for some days.

If the situation deteriorates, the Delhi government will take whatever step is needed to save people lives. Kejriwal said that no one knows when the peak will come. "Central govt gave 4,100 beds in November.

But this time, only 1,800 beds have been given. I requested Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to reserve 50% beds for Covid patients. In the next 3-4 days, the government will add 6,000 more beds, including 1,300 at Yamuna Sports Complex and 2,500 at Radhaswami Satsang premises."

"We are receiving complaints that some labs are taking 2/3 days to give Covid reports to patients. The reason is that these labs are taking more samples than their capacity. Strict action will be taken against such labs that will not give report within 24 hours," Kejriwal said.