Maharashtra: Oxygen cylinders demand goes up 3-fold in Aurangabad

The requirement of oxygen cylinders for treating COVID19 patients has gone up by about three times in Maharashtras Aurangabad district officials said on SundayThe district administration has also initiated steps to increase the oxygen storage capacity in hospitals here and has asked contractors to pace up the work a health department official told PTIWith the number of active COVID19 cases reaching 15341 in the district the demand for oxygen supply has also gone up in hospitals and by patients in home isolation another official saidThe oxygen consumption in the district was 1710 ton per day on March 14 It has now gone up to 4950 ton per day an official from the Food and Drug Administration FDA saidThe rates have been capped by the government and oxygen is being supplied at the rate of Rs 1522 per cubic metre which is the highest now Earlier the rate came down to Rs 12 when the demand was less the official saidThe demand of oxygen cylinders in households has also gone up as more home isolation is being advised now the FDA official saidEvery patient in home isolation may not need oxygen but many of them are ordering cylinders as a precautionary measure he saidLocal supplier Abdul Hakim said in January this year he was supplying about 200 oxygen cylinders to hospitals and households hereNow the demand has gone up to 750 to 800 oxygen cylinders per month To meet the rising demand we need to run our facilities roundtheclock which has raised our expenses he saidHence the rate for refilling an oxygen cylinder has also gone up by nearly Rs 50 he saidAn oxygen cylinder of 75 cubic metre capacity was earlier refilled for Rs 230 The price has now gone up to Rs 280 he saidEarlier the deposit to be paid at the time of buying an oxygen cylinder was Rs 7000 which has now reached Rs 10000 Hakim saidThe hike is due to extra labour cost transportation charges and running of the oxygen supply facilities roundthe clock he addedAn official from the district Civil Hospital said the private and government medical facilities here have a total of 2124 oxygen beds and 532 ICU bedsOut of 840 beds in governmentrun health centres in the district nearly 350 have oxygen facility The remaining beds will also have the oxygen facility in about 10 days civil surgeon Dr Sundar Kulkarni saidHe said they may require around 78 KL kilo litre of oxygen per day at the peak of the viral infection here for which preparations are underwayWe need 32 cylinders of 75 cubic metre each in 24 hours at the civil hospital which is second largest facility to treat COVID19 patients here after the Government College and Hospital In January this year the requirement was 10 to 15 such cylinders he saidAs of now there are 106 oxygen beds and 25 ventilator beds in the civil hospital Kulkarni saidThe district administration has demanded 150 ventilators 100 for the Government Medical College and Hospital and 50 for the civil hospital another official saidOn Saturday 1394 new COVID19 cases were reported in the district taking the infection count to 86981 an official saidThe district also recorded 21 deaths due to the viral infection on Saturday raising the toll to 1758So far 69882 patients have recovered from the infection the official addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever