Rajasthan: Covid patients need 6,500 oxygen cylinders daily

JAIPUR: With more oxygen-supported beds being added for Covid-19 treatment in hospitals across the state, the demand for oxygen is also going up.

The Centre has given in-principle approval to the state government to supply oxygen cylinders from Gujarat for use in Jodhpur and Udaipur hospitals.

“The Centre has in-principle agreed to supply oxygen from Ahmedabad to Jodhpur and Udaipur. It is not clear yet how much oxygen will be supplied but it will be done soon. Currently, we are supplying oxygen daily from Bhiwadi to Jodhpur and Udaipur. We are getting 50KL of oxygen from a firm in Bhiwadi, out of which 20KL is supplied to Jaipur daily and 15KL-15KL is supplied to Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur on rotation basis as per daily requirement,” said a health department official.

The supply from Ahmedabad will reduce the burden of supplying oxygen from Bhiwadi to Jodhpur and Udaipur, covering a long distance. Jaipur is getting 20KL oxygen from Bhiwadi, which is equal to 18,000 cylinders. The requirement of SMS Medical College for non-Covid patients is more than 800 cylinders daily.

Over the past 10 days, the demand for oxygen rose to 11,000 to 12,000 cylinders daily, which was 8,000 to 9,000 every day previously. The demand is continuously increasing and it is all set to increase further as the state government has decided to add 1,000 more beds with oxygen support. “We are continuously increasing our facilities for Covid treatment. If we need more facilities, we are ready for it. We will increase our oxygen supply for medical use,” said a senior health department official.

Currently, the state’s hospitals require 6,500 cylinders of oxygen for Covid treatment, while 5,000 cylinders for non-Covid hospitals.

Before the pandemic, the 24 oxygen generation plants in different parts of the state supplied 12,000 oxygen cylinders to government for medical and industrial use. Out of those, 12,000 cylinders, 4,000 was used for medical purposes and 8,000 for industrial use. Now, the government has increased the share for medical use to 6,000 to 7,000 while rest is left for the industrial purposes.

The health department officials said a patient on oxygen-supported bed requires 3 to 5 cylinders daily for Covid treatment. If the government increases 1,000 more beds, it will require another 3,000 to 5,000 cylinders daily.