Oxygen crisis persists, but watch out for scarcity of paracetamol, Delhi HC told
The Delhi High Court bench hearing petitions on the shortage of beds, drugs and oxygen supply amidst the Covid pandemic, was told some other truths.
Firstly, that there could be a rise in number of beds available, but if this is done, without an equivalent increase in oxygen availability, it would bring down the whole system.
The other issue that came up before the bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Vipin Sanghi was that while the entire country was struggling to get life-saving medicines such as Remdesivir and others, there was actually another emerging shortage of regular paracetamol, an essential in treating coronavirus.
Senior Counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, explained the pressure on the oxygen issue saying, “If these new facilities, as discussed, are started and then there is no oxygen available for them, when they send an SoS, the entire system will collapse.”
Aseem Chaturvedi said, “The problem, my lord, is there are so many cases where Crocin is prescribed and local chemist is saying I don’t have Crocin, but they are not saying that they have an alternative.”