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Manipur medical institute starts producing oxygen to guard against Covid surge
Manipur’s RIMS is ranked 38th in National Institutional Ranking Framework on Human Resource Development (NIRF) 2019-20, released by the Union ministry of human resource development
Manipur’s top medical college has added capacity to produce up to 350,000 litres of medical oxygen daily, when its shortage has taken lives of many Covid-19 patients across the country, swept by the second wave of the disease. Located in Imphal, the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) began oxygen production on April 24 at its manufacturing unit at Lamphelpat .
The institute’s director professor A Santa said, “We have started to produce D- type oxygen (in Jumbo cylinders) since April 24 onwards.” Each Jumbo cylinder contains around 7,000 litres of oxygen and according to Santa, RIMS was producing enough oxygen daily from the atmosphere to fill up 40-50 such jumbo cylinders with the help of five PSA (Pressure swing absorption) oxygen generator plants, installed recently to deal with any medical emergency in the landlocked state. “Each of these five generators can produce around 10 jumbo cylinders daily,” he said.
“Many experts, including director AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) have appreciated our initiatives,” professor Santa said proudly.
RIMS is ranked 38th in National Institutional Ranking Framework on Human Resource Development (NIRF) 2019-20, released by the Union ministry of human resource development. The institute is also busy harvesting water for its sustainable use through different innovative ideas.Earlier, the medical college and hospital, with more than 1000 beds, used to purchase water from private tanker operators.
The oxygen generator plants at RIMS were inspected by chief minister N Biren Singh on Monday. Earlier during the day, Singh had inspected another oxygen manufacturing unit at the state-run JNIMS hospital in Imphal.
On Tuesday, Manipur reported 175 new Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s infection tally to 30,742 including 1,032 active cases, officials said. 29,317 patients have recovered so far. With three more deaths reported on Tuesday, the state’s death toll rose to 393.
As of now, 662,531 persons have been screened at entry points and another 607,553 have been tested at other centres across the state.
So far, 139,457 persons including healthcare and frontline workers have received the first dose of Covid vaccine. Out of these, 65,020 healthcare and frontline workers had also received the second dose.
