Supreme Court Constitutes National Task Force To Review Oxygen Distribution Amid Covid Crisis

New Delhi: Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, in its order, has constituted a National Task Force (NTF) to assess, recommend the need, and distribution of medical oxygen for the entire country.

The 12-member National Task Force set up by the top court will assess availability and distribution of medical oxygen on scientific, rational, and equitable basis across the country.

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The task force is to be led by Dr. Bhabatosh Biswas, the former Vice-Chancellor of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences.

It will also include Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairperson and Managing Director of Gurgaon’s Medanta Hospital and Heart Institute, and prominent doctors from Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Vellore’s Christian Medical College, Bengaluru’s Narayana Healthcare and Mumbai’s Fortis Hospital.

Besides the concerns related to oxygen supply, the Supreme Court constituted task force will also suggest measures to ensure rational and equitable availability of medicines needed for Covid treatment. The members will also share inputs, based on their scientific and specialized knowledge for meeting the challenges induced by the Covid pandemic.

The Supreme court ordered the setting up of the task force on Friday when it called for an overhaul in the central government’s allocation of medical oxygen to different states. According to the bench, the centre has failed to consider factors like ambulances, lower-level Covid care facilities and patients in-home quarantine.

This comes while the Delhi government has once again raised alarm over the Oxygen supply. Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said: “We’re getting help for the supply of oxygen from Central government, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court have also intervened in this regard. We need 700 MT oxygen to run hospitals in the state and if we want to increase the capacity of our hospitals we need 976 MT of oxygen”.

He alleged that the quantity of Medical Oxygen supplied to Delhi has reduced once again. “On May 5, we received 730 MT oxygen for the first time but on May 6 we got 577 MT oxygen and 487 MT of oxygen yesterday. I urge the Central government to maintain at least 700 MT of oxygen supply to Delhi till the situation demands,” he added.

India reported 4,01,078 new Covid-19 cases, 3,18,609 discharges, and 4,187 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. The fatalities going over 4000 deaths makes another grim milestone of recording the highest ever Covid related deaths in a single day.

(With Agency Inputs)