Delhi (The Stellar News) Saksham: Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and urged him to increase the oxygen supply. From last week State cumulative covid-19 cases are increasing rapidly. On Wednesday Punjab registered 5,450 fresh cases and 75 persons lost their lives.
Due to this the demand of oxygen within state has increased rapidly. Punjab’s oxygen demand before pandemic was 15-20 metric ton but now it is 105-110 metric ton and likely to increase in next two weeks. So, CM Punjab requested Dr Vardhan for considering this situation.
Haryana already stopped supply of oxygen to other states until they fulfill the need of their own hospitals. Due to this State government already cut down the supply of oxygen by 50% from industrial sector.
So, CM wrote to centre for supplying 120MT of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) excluding 22MT supplied to PGI Chandigarh on the regular basis to Punjab. He also urged Dr Harsh Vardhan to consider his request of supplying uninterrupted supply of LMO.
Punjab’s Minister for Medical Education and Research O P Soni said, “The demand of oxygen has spiralled in the past few days. Our three medical colleges and hospitals in Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot alone are using 65 MT every day. The situation is going to worsen in the coming days as per the projections of experts. There are 550 Covid patients in medical colleges alone and 75 per cent of these are Level 3. They need a lot of oxygen supplies. We are making sure we have enough supplies. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has already sent an SOS call to Centre. We are on the top of the situation and are working 24×7. The CM is himself handling the situation personally so that we do not go down the Delhi way.”
This is shocking that still Punjab doesn’t have any single plant for the production of LMO. Punjab is fulfilling its need of oxygen from manufacturers, Refillers, ASUs of state and some PSA plants in some districts, both in Government and Private sector.
