India’s Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Thursday issued an official statement refuting news reports that oxygen concentrators are collecting dust at the Customs warehouse, waiting to get clearance from the authorities.
As of now, India has received a total of 3,000 oxygen concentrators from Mauritius, Russia, the UK, Romania, Ireland, Thailand, China, Taiwan and Uzbekistan, the CBIC noted in its statement.
“The oxygen concentrators are either delivered to the identified tertiary care institutions, or have been dispatched for delivery. The relief material has been dispatched through road and air too. There are no oxygen contractors lying in the warehouse of the Customs Department,” CBIC further clarified.
Despite these arrivals however, Delhi hospitals are falling short of oxygen, some Delhi authority members have noted on social media.
Delhi's oxygen demand = 976 MT
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) May 1, 2021
Paper allocation made by Centre = 490MT
Oxygen delivered to Delhi = 312 MT
Not even 1/3rd of the total oxygen needed by Delhi is being given.
We are gasping for breath!
“As far as I know, we have not received anything so far,” Dr. Nutan Mundeja, Director General of Health Services at the Delhi government told the Indian media.
To tackle the devastating second wave in India, the Supreme Court has shown that it's inclined to favour a complete national lockdown to contain the infection.
The top court in its order, released on 3 May, also asked the central and state governments to collaborate and create a buffer stock of oxygen to ensure supply lines continue to function even amid unforeseen circumstances while decentralising the location of the emergency stocks.
India set an alarming new record in its daily COVID numbers on Thursday, recording over 412,000 new cases and 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the heath ministry.
