Impending oxygen shortage in Punjab sets alarm bells ringing

Govt scrambling to meet its daily requirement of 75-80 metric tonnes (MTs) of oxygen, the average demand for which was 15 to 20 MTs a day before the coronavirus outbreak

Rising trajectory of Covid-19 cases in Punjab has started fuelling concerns over the oxygen supply in hospitals across the state.

(PTI)

The state government, which has seen a sudden spike in oxygen demand for patients in hospitals in several districts, is scrambling to meet its daily requirement of 75-80 metric tonnes (MTs) of medical-grade oxygen. The demand varied from 15 to 20 MTs a day on an average before the coronavirus pandemic outbreak last year.

There are 14 air separator units (ASUs) in the state with an installed production capacity of 80 MTs and an equal number of repackaging or bottling plants with a capacity of 41 MTs which have depend upon the availability of liquid oxygen, particularly from manufacturing plants in Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The supply of liquid oxygen has been irregular and set alarm bells ringing for the state authorities over an impending medical oxygen shortage in the state.

RS Sachdeva, managing director of Hi-tech Industries, the largest supplier of medical oxygen to government hospitals, besides industry grade oxygen, in the state, said there is a problem in the supply of liquid oxygen. “There is an alarming increase in coronavirus cases in some states such as Delhi, and our supply has been diverted there. We did not receive any supply from Uttarakhand in the past three days and the plant in Panipat (Haryana) has also reduced our supply. We (his company) got supply of 800 MTs in March, but not received even half of that this month so far,” he said.

The state government has pressed into service the industries department to coordinate with suppliers. “As hospitals in the state are facing shortage of medical grade oxygen due to Covid-19, you are requested to coordinate with the health authorities and help the district administration, director-cum-secretary, Sibin C wrote to general managers, district industries centres, on Monday.

The future demand for oxygen is likely to increase in view of the surge in new infections in recent weeks. The state’s coronavirus case count has gone up by 48% in the past one month, going from 2,05,418 on March 19 to 3,04,660 on Monday. There has been an increase of a staggering 145% in active cases, which stood at 35,311 on April 19, during this period. If this trend continues or the pandemic situation aggravates further, it could lead to a serious shortage of the crucial resource.

Tanu Kashyap, managing director, Punjab Health System Corporation (PHSC) said the Centre has allocated quota of 126 MTs liquid oxygen to Punjab daily, but plans to reduce it to 82 MT from next week. “We have requested them to review the decision and give our full supply. In view of the spike in Covid-19 cases in the state, we are expecting the requirement to increase to 120 MT daily by next week,” she said.

Dr KK Talwar, head of the state’s Covid expert task force, said the Covid situation seems to be under control at present. “The only worry is a situation like Delhi where the cases have shot up sharply. The situation was more or less stabilised in Punjab for three weeks but there has been some increase in new infections in past two-three days. The state can hit the peak by the end of this month or first week of May, but these calculations depend on adherence to precautions and protocols,” he said.

Oxygen is critical for patients of Covid-19, a respiratory disease that reaches the respiratory tract, mainly the lungs, leading to breathing problems, from mild to critical, as well as reducing oxygen in blood to dangerously low levels.

(With inputs from Mandeep Kaur Narula)