Bihar steps on the gas to beat oxygen crisis

PATNA With a projection of three lakh new Covid case in days to come and amidst the looming oxygen crisis, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday promised all financial assistance for bottling plants, refilling plants, tankers required for oxygen generation in state

PATNA

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With a projection of three lakh new Covid case in days to come and amidst the looming oxygen crisis, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday promised all financial assistance for bottling plants, refilling plants, tankers required for oxygen generation in state.

The CM’s instruction came during a high-level meeting attended by two deputy CMs, industry and health ministers, besides senior officials to assess the oxygen supply and demand in the state.

Bihar on Wednesday reported 14,836 new Covid-19 infections and 61 deaths during the last 24 hours. Patna continued to be worst hit, reporting 2,420 cases, followed by 857 in Vaishali, 671 Nalanda, 655 in West Champaran and 635 in Samastipur. The number of active cases rose to 113,479 from 110,430 on Monday.

During the meeting, the CM also asked to increase number of beds in hospitals to meet future requirements, ambulances and ensure supply of medicines and oxygen at all cost. “Take action against private ambulance operators who are charging exorbitantly,” he said.

“We are getting near normal supply. On May 4, we got 856 D-type (jumbo) cylinders which created a crisis for a short duration but it was immediately fulfilled. On an average we require 900-1000 D type cylinders daily,” said Dr Binod Kumar Singh, superintendent, NMCH, a Covid dedicated hospital.

Some private hospitals reported “less supply than demand” while others reduced number of beds to overcome oxygen short supply.

Bihar has been allotted a daily quota of 194 MT of medical oxygen by the Centre, which was increased to 214 MT on May 2. Of this, 34 MT is to be obtained from the air separation units (ASU) functional in the state whereas the rest are to come from Air Water, Jamshedpur, Linde Jamshedpur, Inox Bokaro, Ellenberrrrie, Satyam, Vedanta Electro Steel, Bokaro, and Narayan.

“The situation will ease further once the three plants, two in Patna district and one at Samastipur, with a capacity to produce/refill 2000 cylinders per day, starts operating within a week,” said industry minister Shahnawaz Husain.