A thaw emerged on Thursday in the legal and political clash between Delhi and the Centre over alleged inadequate oxygen supply to the capital, with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sending the highest daily supply so far during the pandemic on Wednesday.

“Delhi’s oxygen usage is 700 metric tonnes per day. We are continuously requesting the central government to give us this much oxygen. Yesterday, for the first time, Delhi received 730 metric tonnes of oxygen. On behalf of the people of Delhi, I express our gratitude. I request that at least this much oxygen be given to Delhi everyday and not be reduced,” Kejriwal said in a letter to Modi.

Delhi has been facing an acute oxygen shortage and several Covid patients are alleged to have died in hospital for want of the life-saving gas. The average oxygen supplied over the last week was 474 metric tonnes per day.

The Delhi chief minister said in a webcast: “If we receive 700 metric tonnes of oxygen daily, we can create several oxygen beds in Delhi. Presently, given the scarcity of oxygen, we can only create 5,000 beds at Radha Soami Satsang, 2,500 beds at two places in Burari, 1,000 beds at the Commonwealth Games Village and 1,000 beds at the Yamuna Sports Complex. Around 9,000-9,500 beds can be prepared if we get adequate oxygen.”

Kejriwal’s comments come at a time when Delhi and the Centre have been fighting a case in the Supreme Court on the allocation of oxygen.

The Delhi government has drawn flak for not doing enough to establish a supply chain of oxygen and facilities for treatment when cases were low in January and February. This has led to a flight of patients to hospitals in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The Delhi government fixed rates for ambulances on Thursday to curb overcharging for these long hauls.

Govt exposed: HC

Delhi High Court on Thursday said the existing medical infrastructure in the national capital had been “exposed” and found to have been in a “shambles” when put to the test during the pandemic and directed the state government to provide treatment to all Covid patients.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli further said the government was behaving like an ostrich with its head in the sand if it was disputing that the medical infrastructure had not crumbled.

“Now you are behaving like the ostrich with its head in the sand. When you defend this situation, then you are not rising above the politics. We always call a spade a spade,” the bench said to senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, when he argued that the court may not say the medical infrastructure was in a shambles.

The bench said: “The existing medical infrastructure in the state is completely exposed... when it was put to the test…”

Mehra said the government had taken several initiatives, like augmenting beds by 15,000 and ICU beds by 1,200, which are in the “pipeline” and oxygen was also coming in.

However, the bench said: “No, that is not right. It is not just oxygen. Is oxygen enough? If you have oxygen, do you have everything? Pipeline is pipeline. They are not there now.”

Additional reporting by PTI