SC ORDERED CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TO PRESENT A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO MEET THE MEDICAL OXYGEN REQUIREMENTS

SC ORDERED CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TO PRESENT A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO MEET THE MEDICAL OXYGEN REQUIREMENTS

The Covid infected cases have been raising at a tremendous pace, the tally crossed the mark of 20 million on Tuesday. Further, there were 412,262 new reported cases of infections over a 24-hour period, pushing the total tally to over 21 million: showed the Health Ministry data. The health care system and facilities of the nation are on the verge of collapsing as the result of the second wave if Covid-19. The death toll is rapidly intensifying as the nation faces shortage of Oxygen cylinders, concentrators and other medical supplies.
According to Siddharth Jain, director of inox Air Products, “India has sufficient oxygen available, as the diminution of cases in State of Gujrat and Maharashtra has increased the availability of Oxygen, but the main issue lies around logistics.” The country lacks the transport and storage capacity to ensure the regular supply of the Oxygen cylinders. Meher Prakash, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research told that, “There are only a finite number of oxygen tankers and cylinders around. So, the logistics of refilling them and bringing them to the destination is a severe bottleneck”.
Along with the shortage in Urban areas, the situation has continued to worsen in the Rural areas of the nation. Even initially, the rural areas are deprived of the basic facilities at the precise hour, this continues to prevail as there is a very little discussion and concentration about the strategy formulation to cope up with the Rural constraints.

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Image Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com


India has been fighting the pandemic since the beginning of 2020, however, there were sufficient supply of the medical equipment and oxygen cylinders during the peak of First wave of Covid-19. During September, 2020, the country was adding 1 lakh new cases every day and thus, the oxygen requirement multiplied by 3 times of the normal demand. After the hit of the Second wave during mid-April, the infected cases have been rising by 3-4 lakhs per day and the demand for medical oxygen has hit all the records.
The 80% of the cases are regarded as the mild cases, whereas, 15% requires Oxygen facility and remaining 5% are the patients in critical conditions and in need of ICU beds. Along with the shortage of Oxygen cylinder and concentrators, the nation is going through the lack of normal ward beds, ICU beds, Ventilators, etc. The death count has detected a monstruous upsurge due to the unavailability of essential accommodations, as around 178 deaths have been observed in past weeks. As per the reports and sources, Karnataka hospital has observed death of 24 people in one night due to shortage of Oxygen. The analogous circumstances have been witnessed in the nation Capital leading to the death of 12 people.

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According to the reports, the international community are joining hands with India to provide medial aid in form of Oxygen Cylinders and other medical supplies. Also, it has been said that some of the aids have been already shipped. However, the situation requires more of the Central Government attentions as per the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s orders. The SC commands the Centre to put forward an all-inclusive plan to manage the Covid-19 situation and deal with the medical crisis. The court also stayed with Delhi High Court of contempt of court for not delivering the sufficient amount of Oxygen in Delhi hospitals. Delhi high court justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli pointed out that the hospitals and nursing homes have had to reduce the number of beds offered because of their inability to serve the existing capacities due to a deficiency of medical oxygen.

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TO PRESENT A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO MEET THE MEDICAL OXYGEN REQUIREMENTS: ORDERED SC
The necessary constant effects are required on the part of Central as well as State Government to proficiently survive the pandemic. Delhi, nation’s capital stands at the most vulnerable and critical situation and for its part, the government has stepped ahead to set up 2 Medical Oxygen plants in New Delhi within a week and also to set up 500 of such plants all over the nation be the next three months.

Sources:

[1] Saheli Roy, “India reports over 412,000 new Covid cases as court demands plan to tackle oxygen shortage in Delhi”, CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/06/india-covid-crisis-cases-fatalities-rise-as-oxygen-shortage-persists.html

[1] https://www.dw.com/en/india-covid-oxygen-shortage/a-57425951

[1] Manu Kaushik, “How many more lives could be lost in India’s oxygen crisis?”, Scroll.in https://scroll.in/article/994252/how-many-more-lives-could-be-lost-in-indias-oxygen-crisis

[1] https://thewire.in/health/oxygen-shortage-deaths-india-covid-19


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