CHANDIGARH: A preliminary wrong assessment of the requirement for oxygen, coupled with a second Covid-19 wave, disturbed Haryana’s calculations and left it ill-prepared to deal with the emergent situation in the state.
Lack of homework, before the surge forced the health department top brass, made the chief minister’s office and the health work extra to take the state’s oxygen allocation to 232 metric tonnes on Wednesday. From the first allocation, Haryana had got no share. From the second, it could get 64 MT.
On April 24, the reallocation was 164 MT. As the crisis continued, the government formed a four-member committee led by an officer of the level of director general of health services. This team met on Sunday and concluded that the state will need 300 MT oxygen. Additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Arora, CM Manohar Lal Khattar and health minister Anil Vij then pushed the Union government.
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Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh also joined the campaign. The CM said at a press conference here on Wednesday: “Last year, we peaked at 3,500 cases and this time we have touched 12,000 and the climb hasn’t stopped, hence the oxygen crisis. Our arrangements were based on the formula of double of the previous hike but the curve was lot steeper. One can predict even floods but one cannot predict a tsunami.”
Claiming that the state was still able to manage the adequate quota, the CM said he had toured the oxygen plants and the upcoming Covid hospitals. ACS Rajeev Arora confirmed that the peak was high unexpectedly but he denied any miscalculation in the assessment of oxygen requirement.
He said: “In the first wave, we consumed barely 80 MT oxygen. Secondly, till April 15, we had no system of allocation and Delhi had the maximum share of 280 MT produced in Haryana. As the surge hit us, we also had to ask for more allocation. In three days, we’ll get more supply and the situation will ease.”
‘Delhi rush in hospitals’
CM Manohar Lal Khattar said the rush of patients from Delhi has put pressure on the state’s hospital system but it’ll be unethical to turn them back. “These patients have come to Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonipat, and Ambala. Their number has fallen in Delhi and we hope it starts reducing in Haryana as well,” he said.
