Amid surge in Covid-19 cases, GB Nagar gasps for oxygen, Remdesivir

NOIDA: Amid an alarming surge in the Covid-19 cases, the hospitals in Gautam Budh Nagar district are facing an acute shortage of oxygen cylinders

NOIDA: Amid an alarming surge in the Covid-19 cases, the hospitals in Gautam Budh Nagar district are facing an acute shortage of oxygen cylinders. While the present requirement of oxygen in the district is 60 metric tonnes (MT) a day, the supply is less than 10 MT, officials said.

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Besides, the district is also facing a shortage of Remdesivir injections, which is used to treat Covid patients with moderate symptoms, the officials said.

GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY admitted that as the demand of oxygen has gone up in the recent past, the hospitals are facing a severe crisis. “We are leaving no stone unturned to meet the rising demand of oxygen cylinders in our Covid-dedicated facilities. Though the factory of company -- Inox Air Products Limited -- that supplies oxygen to entire Delhi-NCR and western Uttar Pradesh is located in GB Nagar itself, it is unable to cater to the demand of oxygen in the district,” he said.

“The state government has already ordered the factory to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to GB Nagar and other districts on top priority. The manufacturer has been asked to allow two working shifts in the unit, so that around 1,200 cylinders daily could be filled up, instead of present 700 cylinders in a single shift,” the DM said.

Dr Shweta (who uses single name), in-charge of oxygen and medicines availability cell in the integrated Covid-19 control room in Sector 59, also said that the district has around 7 MT oxygen left against the present need of 60 MT.

On Tuesday, GB Nagar recorded eight deaths due to Covid-19, which is the highest number of fatalities in a single day, according to the state’s daily health bulletin. With 640 new cases detected on Tuesday, the district now has 3,765 active cases.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said that with the present stock of oxygen and Remdesivir injections, it will be really hard to deal with the rising number of positive cases. “On Tuesday, as per the official records, there was not even a single dose of Remdesivir in our stock. Also, around 20% of positive patients require help with breathing. The demand for oxygen has gone up at least five times after the second wave. We have informed the drug department about this paucity,” he said.

When contacted, Vaibhav Babbar, the district drug inspector, said that the scarcity of oxygen is mainly due to widening gap between supply and demand. “The demand for oxygen has risen exponentially. We have asked the oxygen manufacturer to stop the supply of industrial oxygen to the factories in the district. The overall production capacity of this factory is 34 tonnes per day, of which around 30 tonnes per day is being produced at present. The manufacturer has been told to make supply of medical oxygen to the hospitals in the state. We are also arranging supply of oxygen from Modinagar,” he said.

Babbar further said that Remdesivir injections are also being supplied to the hospitals. “But the supply is very low. We are trying to procure more injections,” he said.

Doctors at different Covid-dedicated hospitals said that the paucity of oxygen is badly affecting the treatment of patients. A doctor of Sharda hospital, preferring anonymity, said that the average daily demand of oxygen, which was 10,800 cubic metres from January to March 2021, has gone up to 19,000 cubic metres in April. If the situation persists, it will really be tough time for us,” he said.

When contacted, the head of medical supply at Inox Air Products Limited, Akash Kumar, refused to divulge the details of oxygen supply to GB Nagar district. “We are very much busy in ensuring critical supply of oxygen to our clients,” he said.

Meanwhile, distress calls from Covid patients looking for Remdesivir and Oxygen continue across GB Nagar. On Sunday, a sector 52 resident admitted to a private hospital in Greater Noida succumbed to the infection after his family could not find a dose of Remdesivir.

“We had been posting on social media and calling up everyone we knew to get the patient Remdesivir which was prescribed by the doctors. However, there was no stock available anywhere. By evening, he passed away,” said Sachin Goyal, a relative of the patient and a resident of Sector 76.

Residents are pulling all strings to arrange oxygen as well. Ashish Kapoor, a resident of Sector 30, was looking for an oxygen concentrator for his mother on Monday. “My mother is under home isolation, but on Sunday evening, her oxygen levels started dropping to about 85. After looking for it in Noida all Sunday, I ultimately had to go to Gurgaon to get the cylinder on Monday which was arranged by some contacts,” he said.

Doctors say that there are no substitutes to Oxygen or Remdesivir for a Covid patient. “Remdesivir is only meant for moderate to severe hospitalised patients. On the other hand, if the patient has not been on oxygen ever in life (pre-Covid) and if they need oxygen for Covid management, they need to be admitted in hospital in appropriate level of care,” said Dr Mrinal Sircar, director (pulmonology & critical care), Fortis Hospital, Noida.