Demand for medical oxygen drops in Gautam Budh Nagar

Noida: Demand for medical oxygen in Gautam Budh Nagar district has been on the decline and more Covid beds are now vacant as more and more patients have started recovering from the infection, officials said

Noida: Demand for medical oxygen in Gautam Budh Nagar district has been on the decline and more Covid beds are now vacant as more and more patients have started recovering from the infection, officials said.

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While 125 Metric Tonnes (MT) of oxygen is required for all Covid beds with oxygen support in the district across its 27 Covid-dedicated hospitals, currently only 80 to 85 MT is being used as of now. A week earlier, the medical oxygen being used through liquid medical oxygen (LMO) plants or cylinders was 98.87 MT in the district.

“Currently, the per day consumption of oxygen in between 80 to 85 MT across all 27 private and government hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, which is being fulfilled without issues, as the consumption has dropped due to slight drop in the number of fresh cases and increasing recovery rate. However, if we have to supply oxygen to all the available oxygen beds, we would require at least 125 MT of oxygen. For now, the situation is under control,” said Dr Sweta Khurana, nodal officer for oxygen supply, Gautam Budh Nagar.

She added that while oxygen cylinders are available as well for patients, focus needs to be more on the stored LMO though plants.

Officials also pointed out that now that oxygen supply is under control, more focus is required to ensure “a regulated supply of oxygen” and storage of LMO.

“The situation began to improve from May 12, when oxygen started to be vacated in light of increasing recoveries. Focus is now towards ensuring a regulated supply of the oxygen which means a confirmed and guaranteed supply daily. For now the oxygen is being arranged by the district administration through different channels. However apart from Inox in Greater Noida, oxygen from other suppliers is not consistent and the quantity may vary from day to day. Also, we are focusing more on the storage of LMO,” said Khurana.

On Thursday, there were 239 new cases in the district, while 436 were discharged over the past 24 hours. The total number of people discharged in the district so far stood at 55,520, as per the state bulletin. On May 12, the district had recorded 992 new cases, and 1228 recoveries. Back then, the tally for recoveries was 6,818 less, at 48,702.

District divisional forest officer PK Srivastava, who had been looking after refilling of cylinders from Ghaziabad, concurred that the demand has dropped in the district.

“By last week, we had to get approximately 1,200 D-type cylinders refilled from agencies in Ghaziabad, which has now come down to approximately 1,000 per day,” said Srivastava.

The city at its peak last week refilled 1,890 D-type cylinders each 0.01 MT, and 200 B-type Cylinders each of 0.0021 MT.

According to official records as of Thursday, of the total 2,458 functional oxygen beds in the district, 1,373 were vacant, while 219 ICU/Ventilator beds were vacant; as many as 917 out of 1,056 general beds in hospitals were vacant.

Meanwhile, a 100-bed hospital with oxygen concentrators was started at Jewar.

“This community health centre was shut for the past 11 years, so we repaired it using ₹50 lakh from my MLA funds. Help came from the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority as well, which helped us with infrastructure. An ambulance was given by the district administration, a generator was provided by the district police department. Even villagers came forward to help and it’s a fully functional facility with four doctors. We also received over 50 high quality oxygen concentrators and are working to make the facility better for rural areas,” said Dhirendra Singh, MLA, Jewar.