NEW DELHI: The national capital recorded its highest 412 COVID-19 fatalities in a day and 25,219 new instances of the infection with a case positivity rate of 31.61 per cent on Saturday, according to a bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
It had reported 375 fatalities on Friday, 395 on Thursday, 368 on Wednesday; 381 on Tuesday, 380 on Monday, 350 on Sunday, 357 on Saturday last week, and 348 on last Friday, according to government data.
Delhi had recorded 27,047 cases on Friday, 24,235 on Thursday, 25,986 on Wednesday, 24,149 on Tuesday, 20,201 on Monday, 22,933 on Sunday, 24,103 last Saturday and 24,331 last Friday.
The city has so far recorded 11,74,553 cases, of which over 10.61 lakh have recovered.
The death toll due to the viral disease stands at 16,559, the bulletin said.
A total of 79,780 tests, including 16,509 rapid-antigen tests, were conducted in a day.
The city currently has 96,747 active cases, it added.
Out of the 21,227 COVID beds in various hospitals of the city, only 1,295 are vacant.
A total of 50,554 patients are recovering in home isolation, the bulletin said.
According to it, 45,353 vaccine doses were administered in a day and included 21,828 who received the first dose and 23,525 who got the second dose.
The number of containment zones in the city has jumped to 39,556 from 37,223 the previous day.
Meanwhile, several hospitals in the national capital reported precipitous drop in their oxygen stocks on Saturday and sent out desperate messages of help on a day 12 COVID-19 patients died at the Batra Hospital here due to lack of the life-saving gas.
Delhi government-run GTB Hospital said it has stock till 8 pm while Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital maintained that their oxygen stock will last for four hours.
Sources at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital said their facility has put admissions on hold due to the depleting oxygen supplies.
The hospital has nearly 350 patients and all of them are on oxygen support.
AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said a cryogenic tanker carrying two metric tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) for Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital will reach the facility within minutes.
"Hate to say this - but oxygen suppliers have abdicated, and we are using every muscle we've got," he said on Twitter.
Similarly, a tanker carrying two metric tonnes of LMO for GTB Hospital will also be reaching the facility, Chadha said on Twitter.
"We will spare no effort to secure lives of Delhiites, despite deprivation of oxygen to the NCT of Delhi," Chadha said.
At 7.35 pm on Saturday, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital also pressed the SOS button as it said it has only 2,500 cubic metres of oxygen left for five hours.
The hospital requires a minimum of 11,000 cubic metre of oxygen per day and has a consumption of 10,000 cubic metres on a daily basis.
The hospital has 560 COVID patients.
Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj also stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage and had only four hours of oxygen left, sources had said in the afternoon.
Later, the issue was resolved after the hospital received an oxygen tanker around 4 pm.
According to the Delhi Corona mobile application, the hospital has 106 coronavirus patients.
Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh too sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen.
"We request urgent assistance in getting #SOSoxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU," the hospital tweeted around 12.40 pm.
"78 Patients battling for their life at Sant Parmanand Hospital. We have less than 1 hour of oxygen left!! PLEASE HELP", the facility tweeted 4.20 pm.
In response, Raghav Chadha had tweeted, "We have arranged two D Type oxygen cylinders to avert any crisis at Sant Parmanand Hospital, from our Rajghat Response Point. The Govt's oxygen reserves are extremely limited due to reduced supply of oxygen to Delhi, however we are trying out best."
Bhagat Chandra Hospital in west Delhi was also in a crisis with its dwindling oxygen supply.
However, Chadha said they have "assigned 3 D-type cylinders from Mayapuri Response Point to the hospital".
"The officials of Bhagat Chandra Hospital are rushing there to collect it. We are literally hand to mouth today as oxygen supplies to Delhi have further dipped. Not even 1/3rd of allocation is rcvd," he tweeted.
At 10.30 am, MD City Hospital situated at Model Town had also said that it has two hours of oxygen left.
The hospital has 140 patients and had not received oxygen supplies from 3 am on April 30.
Chadha said a cryogenic tanker was rushed to the hospital to avert any crisis.
Hospitals across the national capital and its suburbs have been sending out desperate messages of help on social media and other platforms, flagging their dwindling stocks of oxygen.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 of its sickest patients as the administration struggled with depleting oxygen supplies.
Twenty people died at the Jaipur Golden Hospital last week amid shortage of oxygen.