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As J&K reports drop in Covid-19 cases, govt readies to tackle 3rd wave
The government is now planning to set up 32 more Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants.
As Covid-19 witness a fall in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has already started preparation for the third wave of the Covid-19 by augmentation of more oxygen plants in the UT, HT has learnt.
“In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the health and medical education department has taken an initiative to augment the existing oxygen generation capacity in 37 major hospitals of the UT by way of installation and commissioning of additional 84 medical oxygen generation plants having capacity of 71650 LPM. 44 oxygen generation plants (39,350 LPM) have been installed and made operational so far,” J&K government official spokesman said.
He added that the remaining 40 oxygen generation plants (31,750 LPM) are in the process of installation and are likely to be installed by July 2021. “Before April 2021, the oxygen generation capacity of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir was 15082 LPM only,” he said.
The government is now planning to set up 32 more Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants. Though from the past six months, the augmentation has more than doubled.
In J&K, the second wave of the pandemic peaked in May with the highest daily cases of 5,443 on May 7 and the highest daily death toll of 73 on May 17. Afterwards, it started declining as the number of active positive cases begin to come down.
The government spokesman said that 30 oxygen generation plants (13,300 LPM) are being installed across 30 community health centres/sub district hospitals, 15 each in Jammu and Kashmir division.
“The new plants will be funded by the World Bank Fund and its installation is also in progress through J&K Economic Reconstruction Agency,” the spokesman added.
The overall number of people who recovered in J&K from the infection has reached 295,763, prompting the recovery rate to climb to 95.21%. The last time the Covid-19 recovery rate in the UT was above 95% was on April 6.
“Considering further demand and need to make the oxygen generation facility available in all tertiary care hospitals/district hospitals and some major community health centres for tackling the second wave and possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the J&K government approached the ministry of health and family welfare for providing additional PSA plants to the UT under Prime Minister CARES Fund. The Government of India sanctioned additional 32 PSA plants of 24,850 LPM, 13 for the Kashmir division (13,550 LPM) and 13 for the Jammu division (12,350 LPM), thereby raising the total no of PSA plants to 146. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir shall have the capacity of generating oxygen to the extent of 1.26 lakh litre per minute after the installation of additional 102 PSA plants, including 32 sanctioned under PM CARES Fund by GoI,” the spokesman said.
The month of May was most devastating for Jammu and Kashmir as the Union territory reported the highest 114,382 Covid-19 cases and 1,625 deaths fatalities. So far, J&K had 310,017 cases since the pandemic began in 2020. As many as 295,189 of them recovered while 4,226 people died due to the fatal infection. Currently, there are 10,602 cases active across 20 districts of the UT.
