India reports more than 2 lakh daily Covid-19 cases; nationwide exercise to improve oxygen availability

Medical oxygen is a critical component in the treatment of Covid-19 affected patients

With India’s daily Covid-19 tally crossing the 200,000 mark and set to grow further, the Centre on Thursday gave a renewed thrust on oxygen supply logistics across the country to ensure that no hospital or Covid care centres are bereft of the life-saving gas as there is adequate production of medical oxygen in India to meet the current requirements.

Since India’s daily production capacity (7,287 Metric Tonnes) and the stock (about 50,000 MT) are more than the current daily consumption (3,842 MT), there was no immediate reason for any dearth of oxygen and the consequent panic reactions, the Union Health Ministry said in a statement.

Following a mapping exercise involving 12 high-burden states including Karnataka, a high-level group of officials has decided that such states would be requiring 4,880 metric tonnes of oxygen by April 20; 5,619 MT by April 25 and 6,593 MT by April 30 as the scale of epidemic is likely to expand. All efforts are now being made to procure the required quantity.

In addition, the Union Health Ministry will identify 100 hospitals in far-flung areas where PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) technology-based oxygen generation plants can be set up with government back up. This would be in addition to 162 such plants that are being set up with support from the PM-Cares fund.

Read: India's daily Covid cases jump from 1 lakh to 2 lakh in just 10 days

Moreover, the Centre has decided to import 50,000 MT of oxygen as the reserve. A series of actions have also been initiated to improve the supply network so that states can pick up surplus oxygen from steel plants, reduce its wastage and maintain a steady supply by sourcing the oxygen from multiple points.

This happened on a day when India registered 200,739 new cases (Union Health Ministry data released at 8 AM) doubling the size of the previous peak recorded in mid-September.

While Maharashtra (58,952 cases) continues to account for the bulk of the cases, the epidemic is on a steady rise in Uttar Pradesh (20,439), Delhi (17,282), Chhattisgarh (14,250) and Karnataka (11,265). Nearly 81% of the new cases come from 10 states.

For the second consecutive day, more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths were reported on Wednesday. Of the 1,038 deaths, Maharashtra accounted for 278 deaths followed by Chhattisgarh (120) and Delhi (104). This for the first time three states registered more than 100 deaths in the second surge. The number of active cases stands at 14.71 lakh.

Officials said the current challenge is to move oxygen from states with less necessity to needy states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

An initial mapping exercise has helped Maharashtra to lift surplus medical oxygen on a daily basis from steel plants like JSW in Dolvi (Maharashtra), SAIL in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) and JSW in Bellary (Karnataka). Similarly, Madhya Pradesh supplemented its oxygen supply with procurement from Bhilai Steel plant.