Besides the alarming situation of COVID-19 in India, the scarcity of oxygen in many states have added more to the crisis. Delhi being one of the affected cities in the country, now Punjab Government has sent another SOS letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, for the second time in two days, for an urgent increase in allocation of quota.
The oxygen stock is depeting in the state at a higher pace said Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. The CM in his letter to the union minister has requested him to increase state's Liquid Oxygen quota to 250 MT daily due to the continuous surge of covid cases along with inflow of patients from other States.
Besides, the CM has also directed Health Department to immediate place order of 30 lakh doses of Covishield with Serum Insitute of India for free vaccination of persons between 18-45 age group. He has also urged Central Govt to help us with additional 10 lakh vaccine doses since we are now low on supply.
Currently, the daily allocation of medical oxygen for Punjab from the Centra pool is 105 MT, excluding the production of the local ASUs which generate around 60 MT of liquid oxygen within Punjab and meet requirements of various re-fillers, bottling plants and distributors.
The daily consumption and requirement as per the present case load for Covid-19 patients for Punjab, on the other hand, is around 200 MT as April 25, and around 50 MT for non-Covid patients (emergency and other essential requirements that cannot be stopped). The state's capacity for storage of medical oxygen for all healthcare facilities, including both government and private facilities, in Punjab is around 370 MT.
Amid reports of shortage of hospital beds and oxygen supplies, COVID-19 patients from Delhi and neighbouring states are getting admitted to health facilities in Punjab, said officials on Sunday. Many patients from Delhi have been admitted to hospitals in Patiala, Jalandhar and other places, they said, adding that those from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh too are to turning to the state.
