Rajasthan to scale up oxygen generation to 800MT daily

JAIPUR: The health department on Saturday said availability of oxygen for medical use will be increased in government and private hospitals by setting up oxygen generation plants and installing oxygen concentrators, which can extract 750MT to 800 MT oxygen from the air daily.
The need for oxygen during Covid had gone up to 800MT daily. Over the past one year, the state government increased the number of oxygen-supported beds, which pushed up the requirement of oxygen. The number of O2 beds have also been increased from 6,949 to 18,540 in a year, said an official.
Besides, the number of ICU beds have increased from 1,778 to 2,913 and the number of ventilators have gone up from 904 to 2,344.
Amid fears of a possible third wave, the health department has started preparations. “In the next two months, we are targeting to scale up production of oxygen of up to 800 MT from oxygen generation plants based on oxygen separation from air in private hospitals and government hospitals and also by installing oxygen concentrators,” said a senior health department official.
He said they have directed private hospitals having more than 60 beds to install their oxygen plants.
Also, the health department has got around 10,000 oxygen concentrators while another 20,000 are in the pipeline. “We are targeting to produce 750 MT to 800MT of oxygen in two months,” said a senior health department official.
The health department had to depend majorly on the supply of liquid medical oxygen from the Centre during the second wave of Covid.
The health department is targeting to ensure that even the community health centres in rural areas will have facilities of oxygen for patients and for the purpose, the health department is installing oxygen concentrators in community health centres so that patients get immediate oxygen when they need it.