Railways Delivered 1,094 MT Of Medical Oxygen Through Oxygen Express
Even as several hospitals complained of Oxygen shortage, the Indian Railways on Sunday said that it has delivered about 1,094 MT of liquid oxygen, since it ran first loaded Oxygen Express.
A railway ministry spokesperson said that the national transporter continued its journey of bringing relief to people by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country.
The official said, “Indian Railways has now delivered 1,094 MT of LMO in 74 tankers to various states across the country. And 19 Oxygen Express trains have already completed their journey and two more loaded Oxygen Express are on the run carrying 61.46 MT of LMO in four tankers.”
The official said that Delhi received its second Oxygen Express on Sunday afternoon carrying 120 MT of LMO, and third Oxygen Express has already begun its journey from Angul to Delhi carrying 30.86 MT LMO.
The official said that Telangana received its first Oxygen Express from Angul carrying 63.6 MT LMO earlier in the day.
He said that more Oxygen Express to Haryana and Delhi carrying 61.46 MT LMO are on their way.
The official said that so far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 1094 metric tonnes LMO to Maharashtra (174 MT), Uttar Pradesh (430.51 MT), Madhya Pradesh (156.96 MT), Delhi (190 MT), Haryana (79 MT) & Telangana (63.6 MT).
BLK-Max Hospital to install in-house oxygen generator
In a bid to fight the current crisis of Coronavirus-induced oxygen shortage, BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital on Sunday announced that it will install an oxygen generator and a high-pressure cylinder filling system that was donated by the France government.
The Oxygen Generator — manufactured by NOVAIR Medical — and cylinder filling system — manufactured by Oxyplus Technologies — has a total capacity of generating 22 cubic metre of oxygen every hour. It will be installed and commissioned at the hospitals over the next 72 hours.
The initiative will help provide approximately 15 per cent additional back-up to the existing medical oxygen demand at the hospital in the form of a continuous feed.
“We are thankful to the Government of France for providing us critical support at a time when India is facing the worst of the pandemic. This generous donation stands testimony of the Indo-France cooperation during this time of crisis,” said Dr Abhay Soi, Chairman and MD, Max Healthcare in a statement.
The installation of the systems will help BLK-Max hospital manage its oxygen requirements better, particularly in this time of severe oxygen shortages. The system will also be used as back-up support to its normal oxygen supplies.
DRDO Supplies 100 Oxygen Cylinders To Hyderabad Hospital
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has provided 100 medical oxygen cylinders to the government-run Gandhi Hospital here.
The cylinders were supplied at short notice on the request of Union Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy.
Reddy, in whose Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency the hospital falls, handed over the cylinders to the hospital superintendent on Sunday in the presence of officials from DRDO and Telangana’s medical and health department.
Reddy took to Twitter to thank Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and DRDO for sending 100 oxygen cylinders to his parliamentary constituency Secunderabad, at a short notice.
In another tweet, the minister of state said Telangana’s allocation of Remdesivir has been markedly increased to make the availability to the needy Covid-19 patients.
He said 93,800 Remdesivir vials were allocated to Telangana for the period April 21 to May 9.
DDCA to donate 100 oxygen concentrators to state govt
The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) will donate 100 units of oxygen concentrators and another 100 units of BPAP-B non-invasive ventilators to the Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi for distribution to healthcare facilities in New Delhi.
The DDCA said in a statement on Sunday that, “In tandem with its tradition of fulfilling social responsibility, the DDCA has decided to extend a helping hand towards the fight against Covid-19.
“In view of the surge in cases across Delhi and urgent demand for life-saving equipment such as ventilators and oxygen concentrators, the president and members of the Apex Council, DDCA will donate 100 units of oxygen concentrators and another 100 units of BPAP-B non-invasive ventilators to the Government of NCT,” the statement said.
The DDCA also said that in addition to the donations to the NCT of Delhi, it will procure 25 units of oxygen concentrators to be kept at DDCA for use by its members, officials and employees on need basis, to be returned to the DDCA after use.
Hema Malini provides oxygen enhancer devices to Mathura hospitals
Mathura MP Hema Malini has provided oxygen enhancer devices to all the hospitals of the city.
“The device priced at Rs 2 lakh provides oxygen to ten sick people simultaneously. The MP has placed an order for more such devices as she would pay for the devices,” said Janaardan Sharma, Hema Malini’s representative in Mathura.
Meanwhile, river activist and heritage conservationist Shravan Kumar Singh succumbed to Covid on Sunday after his relatives failed to find an oxygen bed for him in Agra, amid the spike in the infections count.
“The number of bodies lined up at the four crematorium grounds in the city shows the crumbling medical infrastructure,” said Hemant Gaud, a social activist, who had also failed to find an oxygen bed for Singh, who had long been crusading for a pollution free Agra and a cleaner Yamuna.
The medical industry is booming and beds are allegedly being offered to the highest bidder.
The Medical Colleges Covid wards and the district hospitals are overflowing with patients. Though there has been a slight improvement in the availability of oxygen in the past two days, reports of black marketing and over-charging continue to flood the district administrative offices.
“Helplessness is writ large. This is one time when even bags full of money can not guarantee the safety of life,” said senior hotelier of Agra Surendra Sharma.
Thousands of villagers are lining up at unregistered doctors in smaller towns, called the “Jhola Chaaps,” in local parlance.
Activist Jagan Prasad Teheriaya said “these people have saved thousands of lives in the last fortnight in the villages, because the treatment is fast and affordable.
“People are afraid to go to the city because they fear there they would not only lose money but life too at the hundreds of nursing homes that have mushroomed all over without any regulation or monitoring.”
Each day the number of victims has been surging.
“Actually there is a total mismatch between government data and the ground realities,” said a retired doctor of the city.
In neighbouring Mathura, the situation is worse. The two local medical college hospitals have been accused of squeezing patients of their hard-earned money.
Hospital beds were for sale between Rs 5 lakhs and Rs 8 lakhs, said senior social and culture activist Ashok Bansal.
The administration is directionless and the politicians have disappeared. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the foreign devotees of Sri Krishna in Vrindavan are caught in a catch 22 situation. They can neither leave nor can they be vaccinated, but most have chosen to confine themselves to their quarters. The temples are shut and the streets are deserted, said Jagan Nath Poddar, convener of Friends of Vrindavan.
Karnataka orders probe after 23 die due to shortage of oxygen
The Karnataka government has ordered a probe into the tragic death of 23 Covid patients due to interruption in the supply of medical oxygen at the Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) in Chamarajanagar district on Monday.
According to the notification issued by N. Manjunath Prasad, Principal Secretary in the Revenue Deparrtment, senior IAS officer Shivayogi Kalasad, who is also Managing Director of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), has been appointed as the inquiry officer to probe the incident.
Describing the incident as a matter of grave concern, Prasad, who is also the member secretary of the Karnataka Disaster Management Authority, directed Kalsad to file a detailed report within three days.
At least 23 patients died at CIMS in the wee hours of Monday after their oxygen supply dropped, officials said.
“The deaths were reported after there was a fall in oxygen supply between 12 midnight and 2 a.m. At least 144 patients were being treated at the hospital when the tragedy struck,” said a senior official at CIMS.
CIMS Director D.M. Sanjeev told reporters that due to a shortage of oxygen, 23 patients who were on ventilator support and needed high flow of oxygen have died.
“Of these, 18 were suffering from comorbidities and had long-standing problems. Right now we need 350 oxygen cylinders a day, an increase from 35-40 cylinders daily, but our vendors are not able to match the rise in demand. We faced a major shortage due to delay in supply because of the widespread increase in demand,” he explained.
The district has reported a total of 11,928 Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic. At least 167 people have fallen prey to the virus until Sunday.
Delhi’s Akash Healthcare with 250 patients cries for oxygen
Delhi-based Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital on Sunday sought the government’s help to provide it with oxygen to save the lives of 250 patients, as the life-saving gas available with it would not last for “more than 60 minutes”.
The hospital sounded the alert through an SOS message on its Twitter handle, seeking help from the Delhi government as well as the Centre.
“CRY FOR HELP: Received only 5 #oxygen cylinders after running around the entire day, not more than 60 mins left to save lives of more than 250 patients. Crying out to Govt authorities to shift out our patients ASAP so that they can be saved,” Akash Healthcare tweeted.
Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital is a tertiary care facility in Delhi’s Dwarka area.
Earlier in the day, Delhi’s Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital had sounded an alert over oxygen shortage on a regular basis despite claiming to be the city’s only hospital in the southern region which is admitting pregnant women infected with Covid-19.
The 130-bed hospital sent an SOS message through its Twitter handle after oxygen availability at the facility for the day was estimated to last till 12 noon. Based in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area, the hospital currently has 80-90 Covid patients, including pregnant women and children.
Shortage of medical oxygen for over an hour had claimed 12 Covid patients’ lives, including that of a doctor, on Saturday afternoon at Delhi’s Batra Hospital.
With 15 Deaths, Some Gurugram Hospitals Stop Operations Amid Oxygen Shortage
Nearly 15 critical Covid-19 patients have lost their lives due to acute shortage of oxygen in smaller hospitals of Gurugram during the last week.
These hospitals regularly demand from the district administration through Twitter or other social media platforms to provide liquid oxygen to them.
According to the hospital management, several of them have discharged all patients and shut down operations, claiming the administration and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) have not paid attention to their repeated requests for liquid oxygen.
Ashok Kathuria, Director of Kathuria hospital in Old Gurugram, said, “Due to shortage of oxygen four Covid-19 patients had died in the hospital. Now we have stopped admission of new Covid patients as we cannot risk someone’s life and why should we face the families’ anger without any mistake on our part.”
Park Group of hospitals tweeted on Sunday that liquid oxygen allocated to it in Gurugram was hijacked by some other hospital.
“More than 140 patients’ lives are in danger,” it tweeted.
Later, the hospital tweeted that it has received less than one tonne of oxygen.
Meanwhile, the administration officials claimed that there was no shortage of liquid oxygen in Gurugram.
Aryan Hospital located on Old Railway Road, Gurugram, tweeted that it has sought officials’ intervention to provide oxygen at the hospital but to no avail.
Bharat, Medical Superintendent, SPES hospital, said the hospital has stopped fresh admissions of Covid patients as they have not received a single oxygen cylinder. In the absence of continuous oxygen supply, we ask families of indoor patients to arrange for oxygen cylinders to continue their treatment.
“Without oxygen how can we run operations? Why should we face people’s anger without any mistake on our part. The district management and the MCG are responsible for allocation of oxygen supply in Gurugram,” said a senior doctor of a leading hospital requesting anonymity.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar chaired a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, Sudhir Rajpal, Nodal officer for Covid management in Gurugram, and the MCG Commissioner late Sunday evening to discuss oxygen allocation for Gurugram hospitals. Khattar assured smooth oxygen supply to all hospitals in the district.
