On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the availability of medical oxygen and discussed the measures to augment oxygen supply across the country.
According to the reports, PM Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting with Principal Secretary to PM, Cabinet Secretary, Secretary Health, Secretary Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Friday to take pre-emptive steps another wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was informed that more than 1,500 PSA Oxygen plants are being set up across the country through the PM CARES fund to mitigate the shortage of oxygen supply reported by many hospitals across several states. The officials informed PM Modi that once all PSA Oxygen plants would be functional, then they would support more than 4 lakh oxygenated beds.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1413404445010972673?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe Prime Minister has also directed the officials to ensure that the hospital staff gets adequate training on the operation and maintenance of oxygen plants. PM Modi has direct officials to have trained personnel at the district level.
“PM also said that we should deploy advanced technology like IoT to track performance and functioning of these oxygen plants at a local and national level. Officials apprised the PM about a pilot being done using IoT for monitoring the performance of the oxygen plants,” the PMO statement read.
Further, the Prime Minister directed officials to work closely with the state governments to make sure that these plants come up soon and are ready to be deployed if at all third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hits the country. Further, Prime Minister instructed officials to PM deploy advanced technology like the Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor the performance and functioning of these oxygen plants at a local and national level.
Centre steps in to ensure critical medical Oxygen supply in the country
After the country faced a shortage of oxygen supply during the second wave of coronavirus, the Modi government is taking several measures to ensure uninterrupted production and supply of Oxygen. The Centre and state government are reportedly working in coordination over Oxygen availability in hospitals.
During the second wave of the pandemic in the country, several states struggled to provide a continuous supply of oxygen to critical Covid-19 patients resulting in several deaths. Following the tragedy, the centre took up the initiative to supply the Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to states, ensuring its critical supplies.
The Indian Railways was at the forefront of timely delivery of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to different parts of the country. The Modi government launched “Oxygen Express” trains that travelled across the country and delivered more than 35000 MT of LMO delivery in the service to the nation.
Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses has supplied LMO to 15 states, namely Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.