The national capital will be under complete curfew for a week, from tonight to next Monday as the country reeled under a surge of the pandemic. Delhi had marked a record surge in cases on Sunday. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said Delhi is facing an "acute shortage" of oxygen for COVID-19 patients and alleged that the quota of the city has been diverted to other states.
This comes hours after he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting his help in enhancing the number of hospital beds and immediate oxygen supply for patients in Delhi "Del facing acute shortage of oxygen. In view of sharply increasing cases, Del needs much more than normal supply. Rather than increasing supply, our normal supply has been sharply reduced and Delhi's quota has been diverted to other states. OXYGEN HAS BECOME AN EMERGENCY IN DEL," he tweeted on Sunday evening.
In an online briefing earlier in the day, the chief minister cited shortage of oxygen at hospitals, particularly private ones, in Delhi. A private hospital in the city closely missed a tragedy Saturday night due to shortage of oxygen, he said. Meanwhile, the Delhi government initiated legal action against two city hospitals for turning away COVID-19 patients, a day after Kejriwal warned them of strict action if found giving wrong information about availability of beds.
The Delhi government has sought legal action against two hospitals, one in south Delhi and another in Janakpuri, for putting out wrong information on availability of COVID beds on the Delhi Corona app, an official statement said. "The hospitals put out information saying that they have COVID beds available but later denied patients, saying no beds were available," it stated.
