Pune: Oxygen Supply Demand Increased To 20 Tonnes Daily, Four-Fold Rise In Last 5 Months
Pune/Pimpri, August 17, 2020: Within the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR), the number of Coronavirus disease (COVID19) positive patients in need of oxygen therapy are increasing in the city. Due to this, the demand for oxygen supply has surged in the city.
Oxygen therapy has emerged as one of the most important medical procedures during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the hospitals in Pune were consuming about 3,000 metric tonnes of oxygen every month. While now, the demand has increased up to 11,000 metric tonnes.
According to experts, if the city faces a shortage in oxygen supply, medium and small-sized hospitals will face critical problems. They have said that the supply in oxygen turned acute in July when the city experienced a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases.
Officials say that the oxygen supply mainly comes from the manufacturing plants in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). MMR is able to supply oxygen because there has been a decline in the positive patient count in the city.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, PMR has a total of 10 plants which can provide a total monthly supply of 8,500 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen. Despite this, the plants here haven’t been able to meet the requirement which surges up to 11,000-12,000 metric tonnes per month. A new plant is being set up in Chakan.
Sanjay Patil, chairman of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Pune chapter, said that mainly medium and small-sized hospitals are facing major oxygen shortage problems.
