PUNE: Demand for medical oxygen in
Maharashtra is currently much lower than October last year, when the state was recording almost the same number of average daily Covid-19 cases, data from the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) here has shown. Medical oxygen is used in the treatment of patients with moderate to serious Covid-19 infections.
The
oxygen demand has presently gone up marginally to an average 350 tonnes per day, but it’s still much lower than the requirement in the peak period of September and even the latter half of October last year. Maharashtra was then recording 6,000-8,000 cases a day, almost similar to the numbers now.
During October, the oxygen demand was 430-450 tonnes daily, an official from the state health department said. Data also showed that around October 28 last year, Maharashtra had 7,348 non-ICU patients on oxygen support. Currently, that number stands at 4,410.
Officials said serious cases requiring oxygen support are presently much less than during the peak pandemic phase last year.
Dr
Sanjay Deshmukh, deputy director of health services (Pune region), said, “Even in Pune circle, the number of daily cases being recorded currently reflect the situation that was seen around October 20 last year. But the present lower oxygen demand indicates high SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility, with low virulence. Home-isolation and asymptomatic cases are much more now. These patients do not require hospitalisation or oxygen support.”
Deshmukh said there has been only a 1-1.5% rise in the number of critical patients in Pune circle presently, compared to the recent months. “Use of oxygen beds in October last year was much more than what it is now,” he added.
Citing other reasons for the reduced oxygen demand, another state health department official said hospitals now have good oxygen storage capacity. “Last year, hospitals would procure oxygen on a daily basis due to lack of good storage. Today, they can buy and store medical oxygen in bulk.
Covid treatment protocols are also much more streamlined now, reducing chances of the illness turning severe. There’s also no panic buying of oxygen among hospitals, which we saw last year,” the official said.
Shashank Joshi, member of the state Covid task force, said, “Covid deaths are currently less compared to the peak last year. We need to wait 2-3 weeks to see if the current form of the disease is mild, moderate or severe as we started seeing these small spikes last week.”
Joshi said the state has enough oxygen beds. “In fact, 80% of these beds are currently vacant,” he added.