Lack of transportation affecting oxygen supply

JODHPUR: Lack of transportation resources is coming in the way of ensuring oxygen supply for the treatment of coronavirus infected patients, the state government revealed the situation in a response filed in the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday.

On May 4, the high court, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), had asked to submit a status report directing to ensure uninterrupted supply of oxygen and life-saving medicines.

The petition could not be heard on Thursday as the chief justice did not attend the office, but additional advocate general Karan Singh Rajpurohit filed the state’s reply. He informed the court that the state government is constantly in touch with the central government to increase the supply of oxygen.

The supply of oxygen has been increased, but the production units allocated for oxygen lie at a considerable distance from the state. Due to this transportation is delayed. The supply of oxygen is also decreasing due to non-availability of oxygen transport tankers. He stated that the tankers of nitrogen and organ gas have been converted into medical oxygen tankers and are being prepared for transport. The central government has allocated 255 metric tonnes (MT) oxygen per day to the state government, but it needs to be increased further due to the steady growth of active cases. The production of oxygen from oxygen producing plants and other sources located in the state is 247 MT per day. A total of 442

MT oxygen may be available in terms of central allocation and state availability, but the scarcity of transport resources has led to a shortage of oxygen. The state said in its response that the central government is regulating the supply of Remdesivir injections from April 21.

Rajasthan has been allocated 1,41,600 vials from April 21 to May 9, but the daily demand has reached 20,000 injections due to the increasing number of patients from the Covid-19 outbreak. Due to insufficient supply, there has been shortage in some places.