DNA Special: Why COVID-19 patients are gasping for oxygen despite enough production

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the system. During the first wave in the country, it exposed the health services. There weren't many testing labs, and no medicines for COVID-19. PPE kits were not made here and there was a shortage of beds in hospitals. But when our country corrected all these deficiencies, this virus came out with the second wave and it has created a crisis of lack of oxygen. That is, the coronavirus also takes a test and exposes the system.

At this time, oxygen is most important to save the lives of patients infected with the coronavirus, and for this, there are long queues in several cities.

However, in view of its increasing demand, the central government has increased the oxygen quota of eight states including Delhi. . These include Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh. The central government has started work on increasing the production of oxygen in the country. For the supply of oxygen in different states, the Ministry of Railways has also started the Oxygen Express service, under which oxygen tankers are being sent by trains to the states.

On Thursday, the Oxygen Express was sent from Lucknow to Bokaro, in which liquid oxygen will loaded and brought back to Lucknow. After this, the crisis of lack of oxygen will reduce slightly in Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh will also be sending such trains now.

The Union Health Ministry has informed that at present, 7.5 thousand metric tons of oxygen is being produced in the country every day, of which 6.6 metric tons are available to the states.

What is important to understand is that there is no shortage of oxygen in the country. Oxygen is being produced more than consumption. That means the problem is in the supply of oxygen. Therefore, we will now explain to you in a very simple language that why did this crisis of oxygen arise in India after all?

To understand this, first you have to know that in our country, oxygen is not used only to save the lives of patients in hospitals. Oxygen is also used in all industrialized sectors like iron, steel and petroleum. Some major companies produce it.

According to a 2020 report, Maharashtra ranks first among the top five states in terms of production capacity of oxygen. Maharashtra produces 991 metric tons of oxygen per day. Then comes Gujarat. After that, the states like Jharkhand, Odisha and Kerala are named in this list. There are a total of 17 large plants of oxygen in these five states alone. Whereas in the rest of the states and union territories, there are only 20 plants in total. There isn't a single oxygen plant in Delhi, the capital of the country. That is, the entire crisis starts from here.

Most of the states of the country depend on these top five states for oxygen. But the problem is that demand for oxygen has increased in these states too. This has disrupted the whole process of oxygen supply. In simple words, there is oxygen in India, but its supply is very difficult.

The question now arises why is the government not expanding the existing plants and why are new plants not being installed.

The answer is that it is not possible to do so at once. New oxygen manufacturing plants cannot be installed overnight. It is a time taking process.

Thus, the only way out of the current crisis is by making the existing supply chain more efficient so that the oxygen could reach every single patient in the country who needs it.