May 5 2021، India’s Supreme Court ordered the government to submit a plan within a day to meet the oxygen supply needs of hospitals in the capital, New Delhi. With the second wave of outbreaks in India, the country’s health care system is nearing collapse and medical oxygen is almost exhausted.
India’s Supreme Court has decided to suspend the punishment of government officials, even though they have failed to end a two-week shortage of oxygen, the Associated Press reported Friday. “At the end of the day, sending an officer to prison for contempt of court doesn’t bring oxygen. Please tell us how to solve this problem. The Supreme Court said.
The New Delhi High Court had earlier issued a contempt notice to the government for ignoring a court order to provide adequate oxygen to more than 40 hospitals in New Delhi. Convicted government officials could face up to six months in prison or a fine.
On May 4th the High Court in New Delhi said the fact that the number of hospital beds was falling and patients were being asked to move elsewhere was a stark reality. The court summoned two Interior Ministry officials to attend the hearing on the 5th, the court is hearing several hospitals and nursing homes filed complaints, these hospitals and nursing homes are struggling to cope with lack of oxygen.
“You can bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, and we won’t.” Judge Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said Thursday.
Raghav Chaddha, a spokesman for the ruling Aam Aadmi party in New Delhi, said the federal government could only meet 40 percent of the hospital’s 700-ton-a-day oxygen needs, and the local government was arranging additional supplies to fill the gap and build new oxygen plants.
