Tamil Nadu may airlift oxygen cylinders, concentrators soon from Madhya Pradesh

CHENNAI: A day after Oxygen Express reached the State, Tamil Nadu is now looking to airlift oxygen cylinders and concentrators from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and one other State, officials sources part of the oxygen monitoring team told The New Indian Express.

Sources said that the talks for this are on and the ways of streamlining oxygen through air are being discussed by a special team. "Oxygen shortage in hospitals is a national phenomenon and we are facing the same here. Right now, we are getting oxygen from the eastern corridor and only one-fifth of it has come," said official sources.

They added that two more containers would come by the midnight of May 17 and it is still unpredictable to say when the situation will stabilize. On Saturday, several second-tier private hospitals in Chennai were found to be shifting patients to government facilities due to lack of oxygen.

This has caused a worry among officials and people alike. "Right now, we have urged all private hospitals to contact the Covid-19 war room in case of an oxygen emergency," said sources.