Admission in AIIMS emergency disrupted briefly amid oxygen pipeline maintenance

New Delhi: Admissions to the emergency department of the AIIMS were restricted for around an hour as the oxygen pipelines were being reorganized due to an increased demand for the life-saving

gas for COVID-19 patients coming in high numbers, officials said.

Around 100 coronavirus-infected patients are already receiving treatment at the emergency department. This is in addition to more than 800 patients who are already admitted at various centres of AIIMS, said the officials of the premier hospital.

"Admissions to the emergency of the AIIMS were restricted for an hour as the oxygen pipelines were being reorganized due to increased requirement of oxygen for COVID-19 patients "Admissions are open and the emergency department is functional now," an AIIMS official said. Twenty people died at Delhi's Jaipur Golden Hospital, their lives ebbing away as the hospital waited for oxygen to be replenished, officials said on Saturday, day five of a deepening crisis over the scarcity of oxygen vital to save critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Patients were seen outside the hospitals trying to get a bed where healthcare workers were seen saying there is no space and that oxygen is being provided to patients in breaks. Meanwhile, AIIMS emergency had no vacant beds available, where patients were running from one hospital to the other.