Patient load up threefold, Punjab gasps for oxygen

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8

As the number of patients requiring oxygen has increased three times in the past 15 days, the government has urged the Centre to remove hitches in the smooth supply of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to the state.

The patient load in the state has risen almost three times from 2,994 on April 21 to 10,151 on May 7. “The oxygen consumption in the state has increased manifold. On April 30, oxygen consumption was 203.8 MT whereas it was 250.6 MT on May 7,” said Ajoy Sharma who is heading state’s Oxygen Control Room.

After the state government had flagged the issue of oxygen supply, the Union Government had enhanced the allocation for Punjab to 195 MT on April 30. Of this, 15 MT was from Roorkie, 10 MT from Linde, Dehradun, 20 MT from Panipat, 60 MT from Inox, Barotiwala, and 90 MT from Bokaro. After including the internal allocation of 32 MT, the total quota for the state till date is 227 MT.

The Punjab Government had on its own arranged 21 tankers for lifting and distributing oxygen, but the total requirement is at least 36 tankers while the availability is only 20. “We have requested the Centre to enhance the number of tankers for the state,” said Sharma.

The state government has urged the Centre for immediate resolution of the logistical issues for lifting the allocated stock from Bokaro and backlog from the plants in adjacent states, said Sharma.

Getting the supply from Bokaro is also posing a challenge. Punjab was able to send only two tankers to Bokaro daily from April 27 till May 2. On May 3, only one tanker could be airlifted due to technical reasons.

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