Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assured “seamless supply” of medical oxygen to the States even while noting that several steps are being taken by the government to augment its supply for Covid19 treatment.
Measures that the government is taking include importing medical oxygen, round the clock working of the oxygen filling stations and allowing containers used for nitrogen and argon to be used for oxygen, Sitharaman said addressing more than 150 senior industry captains in a virtual interaction organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Her remarks on medical oxygen is significant as it comes at a time when the national capital Delhi is reeling with shortage of medical oxygen on the back of sharp surge in the number of daily new Covid19 infections.
Meanwhile, Sitharaman praised Indian industry for its stoic endurance in the current pandemic times and described their extreme forbearance, patience and perseverance with a Japanese word ‘Gamanzuyoi’.
Micro containment strategy
Sitharaman emphasised on the need for adopting micro containment strategy in dealing with the second surge of the pandemic and acknowledged that the deliberations with CII had helped shaped this strategy. Explaining the rationale, the Finance Minister said that unlike last time “we now have important tools such as vaccines and medicines, to deal with the pandemic”.
The Finance Minister also gave details of Government initiatives to help ramp up capacity of Remdesivir from 36 lakh vials per month to 78 lakh vials per month. Some of these measures include rapid clearances for new capacities, stopping the exports of APIs and formulations used in the manufacture of this drug, and allowing EoUs and manufacturers located in SEZs to also sell in the domestic market, she said.
During the interaction, CII members manufacturing Remdesivir apprised the Finance Minister that they were in fact working towards exceeding the committed target of 78 lakh vials per month and aiming to reach a production of 1 crore vials per month.
Elaborating on the recent announcements on the vaccination, the Finance Minister said that the CII’s suggestions on opening up of the vaccination to all adults, allowing industry to vaccinate its employees and their families and permitting vaccine imports have all been accepted in the policy. The Government has also cleared an advance payment of ₹ 4,600 crore to Serum Institute of India and Bharat Bio Tech, to help them ramp up capacities.