The Karnataka Chief Minister on September 23 requested the Centre to incentivise industries to set up new oxygen generation units, as he voiced concern about the ability to supply sufficient medical oxygen, without affecting industries, in case of spike in COVID cases.
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He was speaking while taking part in the Prime Minister's video conference with CMs of seven states that have high prevalence of COVID-19 cases. The Chief Minister briefed him about the steps taken by the State Government to control the virus. He said consumption of oxygen was increasing drastically due to an increase in the number of oxygenated beds and ICUs. Availability for liquid oxygen for medical purposes was now around 375 metric ton per day, which was sufficient for the time being, the Chief Minister's Office said in a release quoting him.
However, once the project of increasing the number of oxygenated beds was over and there was a surge in the number of cases, the state government would not be able to provide enough medical oxygen without affecting industries, he said. Stating that the peak demand of medical oxygen is calculated at about 870 metric tons per day, the release said, keeping this in view, it was requested that the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion may be advised to persuade and incentivise industry to set up oxygen generation units.
A request was also made that the manufacture of hospital-level oxygen generation units is encouraged to ramp up production capacity, it said, adding that at present, these firms were asking for 3-4 months time to supply such units. The Karnataka Chief Minister informed the PM about setting up state level and district level teams of senior officers to ensure that oxygen is transported state-wide to needy hospitals in time. Permission to convert Industrial oxygen cylinders as Medical cylinders has also been issued.
Work on increasing storage capacity in hospitals that have a deficiency has been taken up on a war footing,he added. The Chief Minister said the state had about 7,000 oxygenated beds in government hospitals when the virus first struck. This has been increased to about 18,000, of which 10,000 have been reserved for COVID-19 patients, he said. Apart from this, another 4,250 oxygenated beds have been reserved for COVID patients in private hospitals, he added.
