Delhi on Tuesday recorded 28,395 coronavirus cases on Tuesday – the highest figure since the pandemic broke out in January last year – taking the city’s tally of infections to 9,05,541.
The toll went up by 277 to 12,638, while the positivity rate jumped to 32.82%. There are 85,575 active cases in the city and 85,575 people have recovered from the disease so far.
The Capital is facing an acute shortage of oxygen, beds and medicines with a sharp rise in new cases. Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Centre “with folded hands” to provide medical oxygen to Delhi. “Serious oxygen crisis persists in Delhi,” he tweeted, adding that some hospitals were left with just a few hours of it.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that nearly all the major private and government hospitals in the city would run out of oxygen in the next eight to 12 hours. Prominent facilities such as the Max Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital also confirmed that they were facing shortages.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre why it was waiting till April 22 to ban the use of oxygen in industries amid the severe shortage in the national Capital. “Industries can wait. Patients cannot. Human lives are at stake,” the court said.
The bench then directed the Centre to implement the ban immediately, saying “any delay will lead to loss of precious lives”.
The national Capital went under a six-day lockdown from 10 pm on Monday due the massive surge in Covid-19 cases. Kejriwal had said that the time would be to scale up arrangements for oxygen, medicines and hospital beds in the city.
Hundreds of migrant workers started gathering at railway stations and bus terminals from Monday to get back home after the restrictions were imposed.
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