A senior doctor died along with seven other Covid patients in his own hospital because of an oxygen shortage despite the Delhi facility sending out an SOS for supplies on Saturday morning, officials have said.

“We are trying to resuscitate five other critical patients,” said S.C.L. Gupta, medical director of the Batra Hospital which allegedly received oxygen at 1.35pm, more than an hour after it had run out of stocks.

Gupta said that among the dead was Dr R.K. Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department who had been a patient at the hospital for over a fortnight.

Gupta said the Batra Hospital had informed the authorities about an oxygen shortage on Saturday morning, when it had 2,500 litres of the gas left. The hospital ran out of oxygen around 12.30pm and the oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35pm, hospital authorities said.

Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj has stopped admitting patients citing an oxygen scarcity. Sources said the hospital had four hours of oxygen left.

According to the “Delhi Corona” mobile app, Fortis has 106 coronavirus patients.

The Sehgal Neo Hospital in Meera Bagh has sent out an SOS on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen stocks.

“We request urgent assistance in getting #SOSoxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU,” the hospital tweeted around 12.40pm.

Hospitals across Delhi and its suburbs have been issuing desperate appeals for oxygen on social media.

Last week, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had said that 25 of its “sickest” patients had died because of a lack of oxygen, and Jaipur Golden Hospital reported 20 deaths citing the same cause.