Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sanctioned the procurement of 1 lakh portable oxygen concentrators from the PM-CARES Fund.
"The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by PM Modi to discuss the measures needed to improve Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) supply for COVID management. PM instructed that these oxygen concentrators should be procured at the earliest and provided in states with high case burden," a PMO statement read.
In addition to the earlier sanctioned 713 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants under PM-CARES Fund, 500 new PSA plants have now been sanctioned.
"The PSA plants will augment the supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen at hospitals in district headquarters and Tier 2 cities. These 500 PSA plants will be established with transfer of the indigenous technology developed by DRDO and CSIR to the domestic manufacturers. Establishing PSA plants and procurement of portable oxygen concentrators will greatly augment the supply of oxygen near the demand clusters, thereby addressing the current logistical challenges in transporting oxygen from plants to hospitals," the statement further read.
This comes on the day when the country has broken all previous records regarding the COVID-19 daily cases and deaths.
For the first time ever, India's COVID-19 death toll has crossed the three thousand mark, even as the total number of new cases sets a global record. Today morning, India reported 3,60,960 new cases and 3,293 deaths - both all-time high numbers for the country. At the same time, there were 2,61,162 discharges in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of active cases has now risen to 29.78 lakh while the cumulative death toll now stands above the two lakh mark. This is also the seventh day in a row that the country has reported more than three lakh cases per day.
