Tag: Oxygen

  • Haryana: Four COVID patients die in Rewari hospital amid oxygen shortage, probe underway

    By PTI
    REWARI: Four patients died in a private hospital here on Sunday allegedly due to a shortage of medical oxygen following which the district administration launched an investigation to ascertain the reason behind the deaths.

    Meanwhile, Gurgaon district administration ordered a probe into the death of four patients in a private hospital after reports that they died due to alleged oxygen shortage in the facility.

    The hospital authorities denied these reports and said those who expired were critically ill.

    After the deaths in Rewari, relatives of some of the patients, who were admitted to the designated COVID facility, held a protest outside the building complex alleging there was a grave shortage of medical oxygen.

    “Three patients died in the ICU, while one patient died in the ward. We have limited oxygen supplies. We are repeatedly telling the administration about this and have been sending them reminders,” an official of the hospital in Rewari told reporters outside the building.

    “We have been sending empty oxygen cylinders to vendors to fill them again. Since 9 am, we have been telling the authorities that we have limited stock,” he said.

    The hospital official said the hospital has a consumption of 300 medical oxygen cylinders per day.

    “There are 114 COVID patients admitted in the hospital,” he said.

    Narnaul Deputy Commissioner Ajay Kumar, who is currently officiating as the DC of Rewari district, said the allegations of oxygen shortage and four deaths were made by the hospital.

    “The sub divisional magistrate, chief medical officer and other officials are at the hospital to find out what led to these deaths. They (the hospital) are claiming that there was an oxygen shortage. However, from the administration’s end, regular supply has been given. So, we are finding out where the gap arose, all this is being investigated, Kumar had told PTI over phone earlier in the day.

    A person whose aunt was admitted to the hospital could be seen pleading with some police officials outside the facility, asking them to do something immediately to ensure that the hospital gets adequate stock of medical oxygen.

    Meanwhile, the Gurgaon hospital, where four patients died allegedly due to oxygen shortage, said, “These patients had severe COVID. Although, we are facing a crunch of oxygen supply, in the case of these patients, it was not that we ran out of oxygen. Being critically ill, their oxygen saturation levels dropped sharply. The doctors tried their best to revive them, but unfortunately they passed away.”

    In the case of COVID patients who are critically ill, one cannot predict when the saturation levels will fall, one of the owners of the private hospital told PTI over phone.

    She said that given the present surge in demand of oxygen some of the patient’s attendants have arranged some cylinders as a back up on their own.

    However, the Gurgaon district magistrate took cognisance of the incident and ordered a probe which would ascertain the circumstances leading to the deaths despite claims that oxygen was available.

    The probe will be conducted by Sub Divisional Magistrate Jitender Kumar, according to an official statement.

    Haryana has seen a rise in coronavirus cases and fatalities in the current month.

    The demand for medical liquid oxygen has also increased in hospitals.

    Due to the increased demand to cater to critical COVID patients, the Haryana government on Sunday prohibited all oxygen manufacturing units or suppliers of oxygen in the state from providing the gas to industries till further orders.

    “It is further directed that these units will provide their entire production of oxygen for medical purposes,” a state government order said.

    These units are also directed to produce oxygen to their maximum capacity and maintain a record of the manufacturing and distribution on a daily basis,” it further said.

    However, industries like pharmaceutical, petroleum refineries, steel plants, oxygen cylinder manufacturers, food and water purification etc have been exempted from the order.

  • ‘Praying for divine intervention’: Patients’ kin struggle to get oxygen in Agra

    Family member of Prabha Gupta faced a similar ordeal despite making an appeal for medical oxygen at the district magistrate #39;s Twitter handle.

  • Government bars use of liquid oxygen for non-medical purposes, asks plants to maximise production

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: In a bid to make oxygen available to more people, the Centre on Sunday barred the use of liquid oxygen for any non-medical purpose and asked manufacturing units to maximise its production and make it available to the government for medical use.

    The order by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla came amid a scarcity of medical oxygen in many parts of the country, particularly in Delhi, that have been hit by a fresh wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The central government is trying to source oxygen from different parts of the country and making it available in the worst-hit states by running special trains.

    It is also getting cryogenic tanks from countries like Singapore and the UAE to transport oxygen and oxygen concentrators from the United States.

    Exercising the powers conferred under the Disaster Management Act, the union home secretary directed the state and union territory governments to ensure that “use of liquid oxygen is not allowed for any non-medical purpose and all manufacturing units may maximise their production of liquid oxygen, and make it available to the government for use for medical purposes only, with immediate effect and until further orders.

    ” Further, Bhalla directed that all stocks of liquid oxygen should also be made available to the government for use for medical purposes and no exception is allowed to any industry with regard to use of liquid oxygen.

    The home secretary referred to various measures taken so far to ensure uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen across the country.

    He said it was considered necessary to restrict industrial usage of oxygen for ensuring availability of adequate and uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen across the country for management of COVID-19 patients and necessary order in this regard was issued on April 22 to restrict the use of industrial oxygen.

    The central government has reviewed the oxygen supply situation and has decided that with immediate effect, use of liquid oxygen, including the existing stock, will be allowed for medical purposes only, and that all manufacturing units may be allowed to maximise their production of liquid oxygen, and make it available to the government, for use for medical purposes only, the order said.

    India logged a record 3,49,691 new coronavirus infections and 2,767 on Sunday.

  • IISER Bhopal team develops affordable oxygen concentrator to meet demand during virus surge

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Bhopal have developed an affordable oxygen concentrator to meet high demand of medical oxygen amid a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The device, which is estimated to cost less than Rs 20,000, can provide 93-95 per cent pure oxygen with a flow rate of up to 3 litre/minute, they said.

    According to the team, the device, which costs around Rs 60,000-70,000 at present, has been developed as a solution to tackle the oxygen shortage amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The device, called ‘Oxycon’, has been developed using the open-source technology and material. Once approved, it can be used anywhere from small villages to big cities due to its affordability,” said Siva Umapathy, Director, IISER Bhopal.

    “Unlike the first wave of COVID-19, the second wave has hit the surface very hard.

    The spread has been recorded significantly high and many of the affected need emergency oxygen support.

    Hence, hospitals all across the nation are in need of oxygen cylinders or concentrators and the demand has spiked in a very short time,” Umapathy added.

    The researchers said that the developed device is portable, customizable and easy to deploy.

    “It has a compressor that takes ambient air and passes it through columns having material named zeolite under an optimized pressure.

    Two such columns are used in alternate cycles and electronically controlled valves are used for this purpose to make it automatic and provide a continuous oxygen supply.

    “The material, zeolite, absorbs nitrogen from the air and throws it back to the atmosphere, hence the concentration of oxygen increases in the air at the outlet.

    The valve controls are achieved using a programmed micro-controller based circuit,” said Mitradip Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, IISER Bhopal.

    “This system prototype has already been developed and compared with the commercial systems currently available at the market and we have received positive outcomes.

    We are actively looking for industrial collaborations to further improve and manufacture the system at a larger scale and to deploy it after necessary testing and approvals,” he added.

    India logged a record 3,49,691 new coronavirus infections in a day taking its tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,69,60,172, while active cases crossed the 26-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.

    The death toll increased to 1,92,311 with a record 2,767 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 26,82,751 comprising 15.82 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further dropped to 83.05 per cent.

  • PSA plants that generate oxygen not in demand

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The rise in requirement of the oxygen has led to a near collapse of the system, but hospitals seeking frantic interventions say that their first priority is to ensure oxygen to save lives rather than scrambling to install PSA oxygen generation plants.

    Experts say that installing an PSA oxygen generation plant imported ones cost about Rs 1 crore takes only a week, but hospitals have never felt the need to do because the present system, managed through a robust production and supply system for normal times, worked well.

    “However, the demand has nearly doubled, while the supply has been terribly erratic,” a senior official from Sir Ganga Ram Super Speciality Hospital told this newspaper. The official explained that the storage-refill system had been working well until the avalanche of Covid-19 patients.

    At Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi, where 20 deaths were reported on Friday due to oxygen shortage, medical director DK Baluja said even its supply of 3.6 MT everyday, after rationing by Delhi government, is not met with.

    He, however, has much more pressing concerns than to arrange for a PSA plant which produces oxygen not considered very pure for medical use when compared to liquid medical oxygen. Such is the enormity of the situation that many hospitals in the capital are now getting attendants of critical patients to sign undertakings that hospitals will not be responsible if patients die due to oxygen scarcity.

  • Air Force, Navy ferry oxygen tanks, medical staff for Covid fight

    Express News Service
    BENGALURU: The Union Government is deploying every available resource to tide over the oxygen emergency in the country. Given the urgency, the Railways, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy have been pressed into massive Covid-19 relief efforts.

    “One C-17 aircraft of the IAF left for Changi International Airport, Singapore, from the Hindon Air Base at 2 am on April 24. It is on its way to offload four empty cryogenic oxygen containers at Panagarh in West Bengal,” said IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Ashish Moghe.

    “Another C-17 left Hindon Air Base for the Lohegaon Air Base in Pune for loading two empty cryogenic oxygen container trucks which were then flown to Jamnagar Air Base. The same -C17 aircraft is currently on its second shuttle from Pune to Jamnagar, with a load of two more empty containers,” he added.

    One C-17 aircraft transported two empty containers from Jodhpur to Jamnagar early on Saturday. One IAF Chinook helicopter and one AN-32 transport aircraft took Covid testing equipment from Jammu to Leh and from Jammu to Kargil, respectively. “The equipment consisted of bio -safety cabinets, centrifuges and stabilisers. These machines have been made by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and now given to the Union Territory of Ladakh to enhance testing,” he added.

    Meanwhile, taking into account the rise in Covid-19 cases in the Lakshadweep and Minicoy islands, the Southern Naval Command Headquarters at Kochi has deputed its Naval Ship INS Sharda as ‘Oxygen Express’ to ferry oxygen cylinders to the islands and also to bring back empty cylinders to the mainland for refilling them,” said Defence chief spokesperson Commander Mehul Karnik.

    He added that a medical team comprising of two doctors, two nursing assistants, along with essential medical supplies, have also been provided through naval resources to augment medical support to the islands.

  • Six patients including five with COVID die at private hospital in Amritsar due to lack of oxygen

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: Six patients including five with COVID-19 died on Saturday morning at a private hospital in Amritsar due to shortage of medical oxygen.

    Of the six critical patients who died at the Neelkanth Multispecialty Hospital, three were from Amritsar, two from Gurdaspur and one belonged to Taran Tarn. All of them were admitted on Thursday in the hospital as they were in a critical condition.

    Family members of the victims said they were told yesterday night by the hospital staff that there is shortage of oxygen and they should make their own arrangements.

    ALSO READ: 25 critically ill patients die in Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital amid oxygen scarcity

    The hospital blamed the Amritsar district administration for the incident as they claimed that they informed the administration yesterday itself about the shortage of oxygen cylinders but no one listened to them.

    Sources in the hospital said that they had repeatedly requested the district administration not to delay replenishing the medical oxygen cylinders. But they were told that the priority of supplying oxygen is to government hospitals and only after that the demand from the private hospitals would be met.

    Sunil Devgan, Managing Director of Neelkanth Hospital, said, “We have requested the families of the patients to shift them to another hospital due limited supply of oxygen but the families did not agree. The district administration was giving oxygen supply to the government hospitals, thus it was responsible for the shortage in private hospitals.”

    Amritsar Civil Surgeon Dr Charanjit Singh said, “We will conduct an inquiry and ensure that no such incident happens in future. The management of this private hospital had given a written consent form to the family members of the patients which stated that the hospital is short of oxygen supply and that the family members are responsible for any consequence.”

    ALSO READ: COVID-19: Hospitals in Delhi gasp for oxygen amid staggered supply

    The local chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had yesterday apprised the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner of the shortage faced by private hospitals, as the administration had been diverting the entire oxygen supply to Government Medical College which is treating the maximum COVID-19 cases. The IMA alleged that private hospitals are not being given oxygen by vendors and police have been deployed outside the godowns so that the maximum supply is reserved for government hospitals.

    Conforming that six people have died due to shortage of oxygen, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira, said, “A team will probe what exactly happened as the exact reason is yet to be ascertained and then submit its report after visiting the hospital. There is an apprehension that the patients died due to shortage of oxygen as the supply of oxygen has been diverted to GovernmentMedical College.”

    Khaira said, “We held a meeting yesterday with owners of private hospitals and told them not to admit any critical patient or those who need oxygen supply if they have shortage and should refer such patients to government hospitals.”

  • Bihar may cross over two lakh Covid-19 cases in next 10 days

    Express News Service
    PATNA: A projection is that Bihar may cross over 2 lakh positive cases of COVID-19 in over 10 days. So, the requirement for oxygen will also jump from 72 metric tons to 300 MT tons every day. Alarmed over a projection of a spike in the positive cases in the next 10 days, the state health department has placed a demand for 300MT oxygen daily from the central government.

    Admitting this to the media, principal health secretary Pratyay Amrit said that a projection is that Bihar will cross over 2 lakh of positive cases over the next 10 or more days. He admitted also that if the projected figures come true over the next 10 days, the state’s daily requirement of oxygen will reach 300MT tons of oxygen to save the lives of critical covid-19 patients.

    “In fact, the state has been inhaling nearly 72 metric tons of oxygen till a few days ago but keeping the projected rise in the positive cases in the state, a request for 300 MT oxygen has been made to the central government”, he told the media, adding that the cryogenic oxygen plants will be set up in every districtsoon to get additional backup of oxygen. He also said that beds for doctors and paramedic staff falling positive have been reserved in hospitals.

    “Around 5.46 crore people of 18-44 age group have been identified to be vaccinated from May 1 onwards in the state. For this, the state government has decided to procure vaccine doses directly from the Serum Institute of India to cover the identified population for vaccination”, he said.

    He said also that the vaccination of those above 45 years of age will continue but separate preparations would have to be made for those, above 18 years of age from May 1.

    In fact, the situation in Bihar has turned alarming because of the rapidly dropping of the recovery rate from 99.28 % till March 15 to 80.3% till April 22.

    As per official figures, the positivity rate of Bihar in COVID-19 cases has gone above 11.3%.But taking surges in positive cases in the state, the central government has fixed the daily quota of 194 MT oxygen for Bihar.

    Sharing this here on Friday, former deputy CM and MP (RS) Sushil Kumar Modi said: “After the Prime Minister’s intervention, a quota of 194 MT tons oxygen has been fixed for Bihar by the central government. He said: “The center will supply 194 MT tons oxygen daily to Bihar to ensure oxygen support to critical Covid-19 patients besides 24,500 vials of Remdisivir injections also approved for Bihar”.

  • Delhi COVID crisis: One side of Singhu National Highway opened to let oxygen tankers in

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH:  Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday alleged that Haryana government was hindering the supply of oxygen to Delhi while Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed the oxygen supply problem has already been resolved.

    Khattar while clarifying queries regarding shortage of oxygen in hospitals said though there were some initial difficulties in the supply to Haryana, Delhi and other states from Panipat plant, the problem has been resolved.  

    “I have even held a detailed discussion with Prime Minister  Narendra Modi on this issue,” he said.

    He said a roster has been made for filling of oxygen cylinders and then loading them on lorries at Panipat Oxygen Plant.

    “From now on, one truck will be loaded for Haryana and one truck each for Delhi and Punjab,” he added.

    Khattar also informed that 170 Metric Tonnes of oxygen was being supplied to Delhi between  10 pm to 6 am on Thursday from the Panipat plant. Furthermore,  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had made a call and expressed satisfaction over the supply from the plant, asserted Khattar.

    He further said Panipat plant has a capacity to produce 260 MT of oxygen per day, out of which 140 MT is supplied to Delhi. 

    Meanwhile the Samyukt Kisan Morcha claimed it has decided to remove barricades on one side of the highway at Singhu Border, to give free passage to oxygen tankers, ambulances and other such emergency services. 

    The SKM said the protesting farmers are committed to causing least inconvenience to ordinary citizens.  

    “While the BJP and the government baselessly accused the protesting farmers of obstructing oxygen supply to Delhi, it was seen that the police misdireced oxygen tankers towards the protest site instead of guiding them correctly.” 

    “It is the government which is to be squarely blamed for barricading the roads and obstructing free passage. At all protest sites, farmers have already allowed passage of vehicles,” said Dr Darshan Pal, senior leader of SKM.

  • COVID crisis: Bombay High Court orders Centre to restore oxygen supply to Maharashtra

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI:  The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has directed the Central government to restore the oxygen supply to the Maharashtra government. The court called the Central government’s decision of reducing the oxygen supply of Maharashtra is like a bolt from blue.

    The Central government had cut down the oxygen supply of Maharashtra from 110 metric tonnes (MT) to 60 MT from the Bhilai (Chhatisgarh) plant. This oxygen was provided to hospitals in Nagpur. The court said that this “has hit Maharashtra as a bolt from the blue”.

    A division bench of Justices Sunil Sukre and SM Modak questioned the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for reducing the supply from the plant and directed restoration of supply.

    “In this situation of emergency, respondent no. 3 (CDSCO) should have increased the supply of oxygen to 200-300 MT more. Unfortunately, things have gone in a reverse manner. Considering the dire need,  we restore 110 MT supply of O2 from the Bhilai plant to Maharashtra,” said the court.

    The court also passed several other directions while hearing suo motu a PIL on the adequate supply of Remdesivir and what is considered a lifeline of Covid patients oxygen supply.

    After expressing anguish over the non-compliance of its order, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court ensured Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region receives its share (12,404 vials) of Remdesivir injection and the state its share of oxygen.