States will have to provide a ‘green corridor’ for the continued movement of liquid medical oxygen tanker trucks within cities to ensure adequate availability of their supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a directive from the Ministry of Health. Union Health.
A ‘green corridor’ allows unrestricted passage for rapid delivery and is often created to transport deceased donor organs for transplantation.
In addition to ensuring that no restrictions were placed on the intra- and interstate movement of oxygen tanker trucks, states were also instructed to create hospital oxygen inventory management and plan ahead for timely replenishment so there are no stockouts.
States will also need to ensure the timely payment of invoices owed to manufacturers and suppliers to maintain the uninterrupted supply of oxygen and improve the power supply infrastructure to have an uninterrupted supply to oxygen manufacturing units in the country.
There is also a need to effectively coordinate with steel plants for oxygen procurement, as steel plants provide approximately 550 metric tons of oxygen per day, in addition to oxygen manufacturers providing 6,400 metric tons per day, it was reported to the states.
In a virtual meeting on Sunday, in addition to the Union health secretary, the secretary of the department of industries and domestic trade, the secretary of pharmacists and the state secretaries of health and the secretaries of industries of seven major manufacturing states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh also participated.
Oxygen therapy is an essential component to save the lives of patients with moderate to severe Covid-19.
“In moderate to severe Covid-19 cases, lung cells are not involved in normal function, which makes the lungs not absorb oxygen from the blood and also cannot remove carbon dioxide from the blood. It leads to a decrease in oxygen levels in the blood, whereby oxygen is administered externally to compensate for impaired lung function. The virus attacks lung cells and causes extensive pneumonia, ”said Dr. Yatin Mehta, chair of the intensive care department at Gurugram Medanta Hospital.
The Health Ministry had written a letter to states early Friday asking them to ensure there are no disruptions to the movement of tanker trucks across borders so that there are no shortages anywhere in the country.
Some states do not have oxygen manufacturing units and are dependent on other states. Delhi gets its oxygen supply mainly from Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Punjab gets its supply from Haryana; Madhya Pradesh gets it from Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra; and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana obtain their supplies mainly from Karnataka.
India’s actual oxygen consumption is about 2,000 metric tons per day, and the production capacity per day is about 6,400 metric tons, which is also used by the industry.
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