Tamil Nadu Covid curfew news live: Oxygen generation at Sterlite in a week

Oxygen production for medical use at the Sterlite plant may commence in a week, according to district collector K Senthil Raj who inspected the facility on Wednesday along with six other members of the monitoring committee comprising senior government officials, set up on the directions of the Supreme Court. The premises had been sealed for close to three years on the government’s direction following the anti-Sterlite protest that claimed14 lives on May 22, 2018. Sterlite’s oxygen plant has a daily production capacity of 1,050 tonnes.

Anil Kumar Gupta, 66, spent Rs 6 lakh for three days treatment of his Covid-positive son in two small private hospitals in the Nanganallur area. But his son couldn’t be saved. The patient had a heart issue too and the smaller hospitals weren’t equipped to deal with it. They told Gupta to take his son to a bigger hospital, but not before both hospitals made him pay Rs 1 lakh deposit and another Rs 1.5 lakh as treatment charges. All they did was give him a bed, Gupta told TOI. “Another son is recovering in one of the private hospitals. I understand the situation is bad but hospitals and doctors I met behaved very rudely. One even pushed me out of his hospital,” Gupta said. Sathish M* from Pursawalkam said two of his family members were admitted to a small private hospital. “They spoke about packages and said they would charge from insurance for eight days. Though my son could have been discharged on the seventh day, they delayed it. At a time when people are searching for beds, I didn’t find this humane, “ he said.

As lockdown restrictions have been made stringent, Southern Railway has decided not to allow the general public, including students, to travel by suburban trains till May 20. Frontline workers and those employed in essential services sector are allowed to board the trains after showing their identity cards. The move will affect several people who work in nonessential sectors and depend on suburban trains to reach their workplaces in Chennai. The railways has decided to restrict the category of people who can use the trains as the state government has announced that buses and trains should be run with 50% of occupancy.

The state government’s new set of restrictions to contain the spread of virus will come into force from 4am on May 6. Public transport, railways, metro rail, public and private buses and cabs will be allowed to operate at a maximum capacity of 50%. The standalone grocery and vegetable shops will be permitted till 12 noon without air conditioning facility. Only 50% customers will be allowed at a time. A separate order issued by the government said the differently-abled will be fully exempted from attending office during the 15-day period. All other shops, other than grocery and vegetable shops will remain closed. The big format shops in an area of 3,000sq ft and above, shopping complexes and malls have already been prohibited to function since April 26 onwards. The grocery and vegetable shops in shopping complexes and malls are also not permitted.

DMK president and chief minister- designate M K Stalin on Wednesday appealed to private hospitals in Tamil Nadu to increase bed facilities to treat Covid-19 patients. At present, private hospitals have allocated 50% of the beds exclusively for Covid-19 treatment. “Since it is a medical emergency, I request private hospitals to add more beds and consider subsidizing the Covid-19 treatment cost,” Stalin said in a statement. Stalin noted that he had suggested to the chief secretary that a war room be established for better coordination. It would be helpful in monitoring and maintaining the availability of beds, oxygen, and vaccines in all districts. He applauded frontline workers for their “massive service” for the community.

Did the authorities at the Chengalpet Medical College Hospital ignore warning signs? Eleven patients died within two hours after the volume of oxygen flowing in the pipelines fell from about 70 litres per minute to 10 litres per minute after midnight on Wednesday. “It was something that we had warned the management about,” said a duty doctor, a postgraduate medical student. “Oxygen supply had dipped on Tuesday afternoon and two people died,” the doctor said. The hospital, which had more than 300 patients on oxygen support in Covid-19 and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection wards, consumes an average of 4.2 kilolitres (KL) of oxygen a day. Dean Dr J Muthukumaran said the hospital filled up about 4 kilolitres of oxygen on Tuesday evening, two hours after he received the first complaint. The hospital has five oxygen tanks —two of 10-KL capacity and three 1-KL tanks.

Eleven Covid-19 patients died gasping for breath after midnight on Wednesday at the Chengalpet Government Medical College Hospital as pressure in the oxygen lines dropped suddenly, possibly because of a faulty valve. On Tuesday afternoon, pressure had dropped in a similar fashion leaving two patients dead. Pressure had been restored immediately and normal supply resumed. But around midnight, pressure dropped again drastically and within two hours11 people had died. A 34-year-old patient in the ICU said he watched helplessly as a woman two beds away struggled for breath and passed away. “The fear that you could be the next is the worst thing that can happen to anyone,” he said. Hospital authorities said they had replaced a coil near the main valve of the oxygen pipelines last week and consumption had nearly doubled since, even when there was no increase in the number of patients.

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