
Amid the depleting oxygen supplies, Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Sunday sent another SOS to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, for the second time in two days, for an urgent increase in allocation of quota.
“With Oxygen supplies in the state depleting fast, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday sent another SOS letter to Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, for the second time in two days, for an urgent increase in allocation of quota”, reported the news agency ANI.
With Oxygen supplies in the state depleting fast, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday sent another SOS letter to Union Health & Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, for the second time in two days, for an urgent increase in allocation of quota: Punjab CMO pic.twitter.com/6ZrctIICHc
— ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2021
In the letter, Singh directed Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan to pursue with the government of India for urgent supplies – as the demand for oxygen increases successively – triggered by the amplifying patient load due to influx from Delhi and other states.
Requesting the Chief Secretary to rush urgent supplies to Amritsar – where many lives were lost on Saturday due to shortage of oxygen in a private hospital.
The recent reports suggest that the Chief Minister has sought four-hourly reports from Principal Secretary Industries on the state’s hospital-wise demand-supply situation of Oxygen.
Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Saturday, wrote to the Union Health Minister requesting for an increase in Punjab’s liquid oxygen quota to 250 MT daily due to the unprecedented spike in the Covid-19 cases and sought his urgent personal intervention.
Punjab isn’t the only state that has been facing the brunt of a shortage in oxygen supply. Maharashtra followed by the Delhi Chief Minister sent out letters to the centre highlighting the lack of medical supplies in the respective states amid the surging Covid-19 cases.
While the entire country is reeling under the fury of coronavirus, the nation’s crippling healthcare infrastructure nation has flagged concerns amongst the masses.
Punjab’s daily allocation of medical oxygen from the Centra pool is 105 MT. This excludes the production of the local ASUs which generate around 60 MT of liquid oxygen within Punjab and meet the requirements of various re-fillers, bottling plants and distributors.
While the daily consumption and requirement as per the present caseload for Covid-19 patients for Punjab is around 200 MT as of April 25. Around 50 MT for non-Covid patients (emergency and other essential requirements that cannot be stopped).
This makes the total daily requirement and consumption for Punjab healthcare services of 250 MT of liquid medical oxygen.
Punjab’s requirement is expected to rise around 250-300 MT in the next two weeks as per the projections of the caseload. 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.