Maharashtra, which had faced acute oxygen shortage during the two bouts of the COVID 19 pandemic in the past, has developed a capacity for the supply of 6,601 MT of oxygen to deal with the emerging situation, especially in the wake of outbreak in various countries including China.
Health dept gives presentation to CM
The public health department, in its presentation to the Chief Minister Mr Eknath Shinde, has given details with regard to the state's preparedness to meet oxygen demand. This is important as the Centre on Saturday had asked the states and UTs to keep the oxygen supply facilities and ventilators ready.
Govt's preparedness for oxygen demand
The state government has planned 535 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generating plants of which 523 have been established as of now. These plants can produce 552 MT of oxygen. The government has set up 364 liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tanks to complete 70% storage capacity which can store 5500 MT of oxygen.
In addition, the government has planned additional LMO tanks comprising 140 tanks of 210 KL of which 124 LMO tanks have been set up at district level. These tanks have a storage capacity of 1,64 MT.
The government has made available 56,551 Umbro cylinders, 20,000 B type cylinders and 1,000 dura cylinders. Further oxygen pipelines have been laid down in Dedicated Covid Hospitals (DCH) and Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC).
'Govt's emphasis on oxygen generation and storage': official
A senior public health department officer told the Free Press Journal, ‘’The government gave emphasis on putting in place a new oxygen generation and storage system after the outbreak of Covid 19 in March 2020. As per the government plan, districts are expected to meet 70% demand through liquid medical oxygen, 20% through PSA plants and 10% through B and D types oxygen cylinders. The state needs oxygen requirement of 1,919 MT for public health amenities of which the state can produce 383 MT (20%) through PSA plants, store 1,343.3 MT (70%) of liquid medical oxygen in medical oxygen form.’’
As far as the availability of ventilators is concerned, there are 8,280 ventilators across the state comprising 5763 in DCHs and 2,517 in DCHCs.
State to hold mock drill on December 27
The Public Health Minister Dr Tanaji Sawant on Saturday said that as per the Centre’s advisory, the state government will hold mock drill on December 27 across the state to check the operationalisation and maintenance of the existing facilities to combat the COVID 19 and its new variants. There are in all 2215 facilities including 537 DCHs, 1335 DCHCs and 344 Dedicate Covid Care Centres (DCCC). He called upon the citizens not to panic and said that the state government is geared up to tackle every situation.
