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Chandigarh urges Centre to increase oxygen quota
With a sudden jump in the number of active cases and the infection numbers not seeing any decline, officials fear the requirement might increase manifold in the coming days
With demand and supply of medical oxygen running “neck and neck” in Chandigarh, the administration has requested the central government to increase its daily quota by 15 metric ton.
The Centre has allotted 20MT oxygen to Chandigarh, which is supplied from a plant in Solan and distributed among all government and private hospitals. The administration is also able to generate around 5MT oxygen at its newly developed plants.
With a sudden jump in the number of active cases and the infection numbers not seeing any decline, officials fear the requirement might increase manifold in the coming days.
“With the high court ordering provision of oxygen to patients in home isolation, we have to make arrangements for them too. In view of this, we have asked the Centre to enhance our daily quota from 20MT to 35MT,” said UT adviser Manoj Parida, while urging NGOs setting up mini Covid care centres to provide oxygen concentrators with each bed to reduce the demand.
Officials claimed the UT is not even receive the allotted quota, and a gap of 4-5 MT is seen daily, which is being fulfilled through internal sources of hospitals.
“We are almost running neck and neck in terms of demand and supply. If there is any lag in the supply, it can result in a crisis-like situation. Also, the requirement is expected to increase as more ICUs are coming up in hospitals,” said Yashpaul Garg, nodal officer for oxygen supply in Chandigarh.
Status in neighbouring districts
In Mohali, the daily oxygen demand is 27 MT, which is being met through multiple sources.
Liquid medical oxygen tankers are arriving from Bokaro, Roorkee, Panipat, Uttarakhand and Solan, while two local companies are supplying oxygen cylinders to Mohali hospitals.
Meanwhile, an oxygen plant is being set up at the civil hospital in Phase 6, which is expected to become operational in 15 to 20 days.
In Panchkula, there is a demand for 11MT oxygen. While it is receiving 8MT liquid medical oxygen, the remaining 3MT is met through cylinders.
On Thursday, an oxygen plant was made operational at the civil hospital in Sector 6, which will provide 24x7 supply to 30 beds.
Panchkula civil surgeon Dr Jasjeet Kaur said another plant with threefold capacity is also being set up.
