30,000 Oxygen Beds, Buffer Stock Of Medicines: How Delhi Is Gearing Up To Face Omicron Threat

To prevent a repeat of the oxygen crisis that hit Delhi during the second Covid-19 wave, Kejriwal said the government has created an extra storage facility of 442 metric tonnes of medical oxygen.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (File)

New Delhi: About 30,000 oxygen beds, two-month buffer of 32 Covid-19 medicines are some of the measures Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Tuesday to tackle the emerging threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Addressing the media after a meeting with government departments, Kejriwal said, "This time, we have prepared 30,000 oxygen beds. Out of these, 10, 000 are ICU beds. There are 6,800 beds under construction that will be ready by February."

The government aims to prepare 100 oxygen beds in every municipal ward. "There are 270 municipal wards which means we will be able to prepare 27,000 beds at a short notice," he said.

To prevent a repeat of the oxygen crisis that hit Delhi during the second Covid-19 wave, Kejriwal said the government has created an extra storage facility of 442 metric tonnes of medical oxygen.

"We had zero capacity to produce oxygen. We have installed PSA plants that can produce 121 MT oxygen. Last time, the hospitals were sending out sending out SOS messages for oxygen. We have directed to install telemetry devices in all oxygen tanks across Delhi so that our war room will be in the know where oxygen is running out," Kejriwal said.

The government has also imported 6,000 cylinders from China and there are three private refilling plants that can fill 1500 cylinders per day. "We have put up two bottling plants that can fill 1400 cylinders on a daily basis," the Delhi CM said.

Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that no case of the new Omicron variant had been reported in India as yet.