The Indian Railways has delivered 813 tonnes of medical oxygen across the country since April 19, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said on Saturday.
70 tonnes of life-saving gas for overwhelmed
hospitals as the coronavirus outbreak sweeps the nation.
New Delhi is the most populous city in India, with about 30 million residents.
Hospitals have been turning away patients in need of life-saving treatment because of a lack of beds, oxygen and supplies.
Dr K Preetham, chief of medical administration at the
Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in New Delhi, said the scarcity of oxygen was the main concern. For seven days, most of us haven t slept. Because of the scarcity, we are forced to put two patients on one cylinder and this is a time-consuming process because we don t have long tubes, he said.
NEW DELHI: A sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country has led shortage of hospital beds and medical-grade oxygen.
The government has ramped up its efforts to get oxygen to hospitals using Oxygen Express, air force planes and trucks to transport tankers as fresh cases once again touched a new peak of 3.49 lakh in a single day.
Govt bars use of liquid oxygen for non-medical purposes
The Centre, in order to ease the oxygen supply situation at hospitals treating Covid patients, decided on Sunday to restrict the use of liquid oxygen, including all the existing stock, to only medical purposes with immediate effect.
A view of the ‘Oxygen Express Train. File.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
The railways has chalked out plans to transport medical oxygen from Angul, Kalingnagar, Rourkela and Raigarh to Delhi and NCR region, says the Railway Board Chairman
An ‘oxygen express’ carrying about 70 tonnes of medical oxygen is expected to reach Delhi by Monday night, the Indian Railways said on Sunday.
The train which is the first such service for the national capital facing severe shortage of medical oxygen, will depart from Jindal Steel Works plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, on Sunday night.
“We will move about four tankers of liquid medical oxygen from the Jindal plant in Raigarh.the tankers are getting loaded there. We have already provided our wagons which are ready, and as soon as the tankers are loaded, they will be moved tonight,” Railway Board Chairman and CEO Suneet Sharma said in a press conference.