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Vijayan writes to Modi, seeks 1,000 tonnes of oxygen amid surge
Thiruvananthapuram: As Covid-19 cases continue to surge and almost all hospitals packed to the brim, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said he has written to Prime Minister Modi seeking more liquid medical oxygen and vaccines for the state
Thiruvananthapuram:
As Covid-19 cases continue to surge and almost all hospitals packed to the brim, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said he has written to Prime Minister Modi seeking more liquid medical oxygen and vaccines for the state.
“We are going through a serious phase of the pandemic. Rising number of cases and TPR shows we have to tighten curbs further. We have asked private hospitals to strictly follow the health ministry’s admission norms,” the CM said, in a virtual address to reporters. He added that he sent a letter to the prime minister on Wednesday seeking more help to tide over the crisis.
In terms of total cases, Kerala ranks third in the country, only behind Maharashtra and Karnataka. The state reported 41,953 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the active caseload to 375,658. The test positivity rate in the state was 25.69. Though the fatality rate in Kerala is lowest in the country (below 0.4), statistics show it is also climbing up steadily in the last one week. As many as 58 deaths were reported in 24 hours, taking the toll in the state to 5,565, according to the state health department.
Vijayan said hostels, lodges and empty offices will be converted into first line treatment centres to meet surge of patients. To avoid overcrowding of hospitals, he said, admission norms were tweaked and only cases that need urgent medical care would be admitted. He also sought the help of non-resident Indians (NRIs) -- the state has about 25 lakh people working abroad and 70% of them are in West Asian countries – in the state’s fight against the pandemic.
In his letter to the PM, Vijayan said medical oxygen storage in the state should be augmented urgently as there was an increased demand for life-saving medical gas. “To augment storage, we need 1,000 tonnes of imported liquid medical oxygen. The Ministry of External Affairs may be advised to allot required quantity partly from the current tranche of imports and balance from future imports,” he said.
The chief minister also asked the PM to provide more oxygen concentrators, ventilators and other equipment on priority basis considering high volume of cases. This is the first time the state was knocking at the Centre’s doors frantically, experts said.
The state has, so far, vaccinated 7.4 million people, almost 20% of its 32.5-million population. The Union health ministry and PM had recently lauded the state’s zero wastage of vaccine while in some states it was between 5 and 18%. The CM has also requested the PM to send more vaccines – 5 million doses of Covishield and 2.5 million Covaxin doses.
Currently, the state has a stock of 272.2 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen, and it needs 108 mt of oxygen daily, as per the health ministry statistics. What really worries the state is that the number of patients who need oxygen is rising alarmingly. In some of the worst-affected districts like Kozhikode and Ernakulam, most of the government hospitals are filled to the capacity, according to state government data. The government has also decided to deploy trainee doctors and nursing students to meet shortage of medical staff and set up oxygen plants on war-footing.
