Recently in some sections of the media a comparison between Delhi and Mumbai’s peak oxygen demand during the second wave covid crisis is shown. In it, it is alleged that despite both having similar numbers of peak active cases (around 95,000), Delhi required almost 3.5 times the peak oxygen requirement of Mumbai. Hence Delhi government’s covid management efforts are given a demeaning thumbs down.
Data, when analysed in a completely mindless way, leads to results which can be laughable and at the same time may reflect the state of sinister prejudice some of our intellectuals can be struggling with.
A section on media alleges that Mumbai managed with 275 metric tonnes (MT) per day of oxygen even when the active Covid cases crossed 92,000. But Delhi demanded 976 MT oxygen per day while it had active case load of 97,977.
Here it has to be noted that peak oxygen demand is not a function of total active cases, but of the peak number of daily covid cases. For a few days if a plethora of new cases come, those patients are to be provided oxygen then and there. If a tsunami of 50,000 new patients comes for three days, then the peak oxygen demand corresponding to those days will increase to that tune. Simple! Now lets look what truth this fact reveals for Delhi and Mumbai.
While Mumbai reached a peak of nearly 11,200 new cases per day during this crisis, Delhi reached a peak of nearly 28,500 cases per day, 2.5 times that of Mumbai. Now you yourself contemplate, if a flood of 2.5 times the patients compared to Mumbai is coming to Delhi hospitals, should they refuse oxygen and kill them just because Delhi’s total active case load is still not that much? Does total active case load has any meaning in saving lives when for many days Delhi got a gush of patients many times that of Mumbai? Why dont our self proclaimed experts and analysts first sit and think before jumping to write down insane analysis in the media!
During the corona first wave in September 2020, Maharashtra had a peak daily cases of 37,500 and a peak oxygen supply of 850 MT. For a Delhi peak like situation of 28,500 cases, this would have translated to about 650 MT per day. Delhi was getting less than 500 MT for most of its severest crisis days. Would we first kill patients from Delhi with oxygen shortage and then complain also that they consumed so much oxygen, they could have managed it in even less?
On 6th April 2021, oxygen consumption in Maharashtra again touched 777 MT per day due to rising cases. As it takes a minimum of 6 days for the infected to require oxygen, the cases 6-8 days prior to that were in the range of Delhi’s peak (around 30,000). When Maharashtra can use this much oxygen for itself, why cant Delhi for almost the same number of daily cases?
Take the case of Nagpur. Peak per day cases nearly 8000, peak oxygen demand 164 MT per day. Extrapolate for the Delhi numbers, Nagpur would have required 584 MT of oxygen had it had Delhi like peak 28,500 cases per day. Indeed, Delhi was supplied 400-600 MT of oxygen during the havoc days, and it struggled to meet its demand against its supplies. What's the fuss about it, when will we Indians start avoiding that evil feeling of extracting political mileage from everything?
One such article questions Delhi’s oxygen consumption compared to Mumbai but later states that the oxygen consumption in both per capita was almost same, around 0.0045 MT per person, but Delhi using about 10% more oxygen per person compared to Mumbai.
Ok, now we got it! So the Yaksh Prashna of today is why the Delhi patients used 10% more oxygen compared to Mumbai! And yes! It is the complete failure of Delhi Government.
Can Delhi government advise its hospitals to use lesser oxygen per person? A doctor who knows hundreds and thousands are dying daily for want of oxygen will really waste oxygen? And Delhi government’s engineering degree holder Chief Minister should tell these doctors of years and decades of experience to use 10% lesser oxygen as the doctors might not be having brains to know the oxygen situation in the city and the country!
We think the next hisaab kitaab they are going to prepare is how much per capita water a Delhite takes compared to a Mumbaikar and how much he urinates, and blame the government for not issuing guidelines to take 10% lesser water to save the country from excessive urination.
Was there not an Oxygen crisis in Delhi? Did Kejriwal government sold off this oxygen to industrial plants? Did the hospitals not have an acute oxygen shortage, they just hired high paying lawyers, got prepared the papers overnight, and approached the High Court in urgency just for fun? To get into headlines? Was it all a drama by the hospitals? Were the patients who died due to oxygen shortage killed in spite of having ample and excessive supply and storage of oxygen?
So the Delhi Chief Minister was playing a drama in front of the Prime Minister, while there was an excessive supply of oxygen hidden somewhere in government stores? Were videos getting shared in social media of the Delhi patients dying due to not getting a single breath of oxygen were all fake? Were those patients acting to get that extra buck? Were SOS messages on facebook and twitter from Delhites for the last cry for oxygen were all due to Delhi Government selling the oxygen in black market in those days?
Alas, some people in our country have lowered themselves to such a deep and dirty level that they do not feel ashamed of doing devil politics even over dead bodies.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/methink/kejriwal-covid-gimmicks-tale-of-two-cities/
https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/story/mumbai-delhi-oxygen-crisis-covid-cases-deaths-1799979-2021-05-07
https://www.news18.com/news/india/in-terms-of-numbers-the-worst-could-be-over-delhi-is-past-its-peak-3728087.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/with-oxygen-demand-down-to-nearly-half-of-april-ngp-starts-supply-to-other-dists/articleshow/83016159.cms
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/after-76-days-covid-cases-again-below-1k-in-dist/articleshow/82721447.cms
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/fda-foresees-oxygen-shortage-in-coming-days-7261843/
https://www.google.com/search?q=maharashtra+covid+cases+peak&oq=maharas&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j35i39l2j46i67i433j0i67j0i20i263i433j69i60l2.4453j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=131442&sid=1
