New Delhi: India has enough stock of medical oxygen, but the issue is its transportation from the producing states to high-demand areas which the government is trying to address, the Home Ministry said Monday.
Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Piyush Goyal also said the turnaround time of oxygen-carrying tankers was reduced to 1-2 hours from 4-5 days by taking the help of the Indian Air Force transport aircraft which have been ferrying empty tankers.
“We have enough stock of oxygen. The issue is transportation which we are trying to resolve by active involvement of all stake holders,” Goyal told a press conference here.
Amidst increasing demand for oxygen in the country due to the surging coronavirus cases, he said, “There is absolutely no need to panic for oxygen as we are trying to resolve the issue of oxygen transportation from the producing states to high demand areas.”
He also said the Central government is monitoring the movement of oxygen-carrying tankers on real-time basis through GPS and making them available to hospitals at the shortest possible time.
Since Friday, the home ministry has been coordinating efforts to deploy empty oxygen tankers and containers in various filling stations across the country to speed up the distribution of the much-needed medical oxygen in treating COVID-19 patients.
The coronavirus situation continues to be grim in India with 3,52,991 people testing positive and a record 2,812 deaths reported on Monday.
The Central government is trying to source oxygen from different parts of the country and making it available in worst hit states by running special trains. PTI ACB
India records biggest single-day spike with 352,991 fresh Covid-19 cases With 3,52,991 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, the highest so far, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 1,73,13,163 while active cases have crossed the 28-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
The death toll increased to 1,95,123 with a record 2,812 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 28,13,658 comprising 16.25 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further dropped to 82.62 per cent.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,43,04,382. The case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.13 per cent, the data stated. PTI

Press Trust of India