New Delhi, May 13 (IANS): The Arvind Kejriwal government on Thursday wrote a letter to the Centre to inform that Delhi's daily oxygen requirement has fallen from 700 MT to 582 MT per day and hence, the additional oxygen quota of the national capital should be supplied to other states needing oxygen.

For the last few days, the Center has fixed Delhi's daily quota of oxygen to 590 MT.

As Delhi has witnessed a sharp decline in daily Covid positive cases its hospitals in the last few days, the capital's daily demand for oxygen has also reduced.

"During the peak period, we were getting regular SOS calls from the hospitals. Now, we receive hardly one or two SOS calls daily which are fulfilled without any delay.

"Delhi government is a responsible government and hence it is requesting the Central government to reduce the daily oxygen allocation of Delhi to 582 MT. This way the other states in the need of oxygen can get the surplus oxygen from Delhi," said Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi's nodal minister for Covid management, stated that the Covid cases were at their peak in the last week of April and first week of May. On a daily basis, more than 80,000 tests were being done out of which around 28,000 (highest on April 20) were testing positive.

The daily positivity rate had risen to 36 per cent (April 22) during that period, which on Thursday reduced to around 14 per cent and daily new cases were reported 10,400 in the last 24 hours.

Sisodia emphasised that the oxygen demand was directly proportional to the increase in cases. During the peak time, Delhi needed 700 MT of oxygen daily. He highlighted that as the cases have reduced, Delhi's requirement of oxygen has dropped to 582 MT, as per the formula determined by the Centre.

Sisodia expressed his gratitude to the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and Central Government for their timely intervention and providing much needed oxygen supply to Delhi.