Bhubaneswar: There will be no shortage of Oxygen for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in Odisha, said additional chief secretary of health department, Pradipta Mohapatra on Friday.
Briefing the media, Mohaptra said the daily oxygen consumption is 45 MT in the State. Directives have been issued to ensure that no oxygen cylinder remain empty in any hospital. Modalities have also been fixed to fill cylinder from nearest filler every day.
“Apart from fulfilling the demand of our State, we are also supplying oxygen to nearly seven states by making green corridor. When the demand will surge in our State, we will certainly meet our demand first,” Mohapatra said.
Speaking about media reports regarding shortage of Remdesivir, the ACS said, “Odisha has sufficient stock of Remdesivir. Our daily consumption is 1200 injections, but we have a stock of 43,000 injections. By tomorrow 21,000 more Remdesivir injections will arrive in the State. The reports regarding shortage of the injections are from private hospitals.”
There are 8463 general beds in the State of which 3791 are occupied by patients. Of the 2063 ICU/HDU beds, 1426 that means 69 per cent beds are occupied. Besides, of the total 701 ventilators, 270 (38 per cent) are occupied.
Speaking about the phase-3 vaccination, Mohapatra said the State has 1.93 crore people in the 18-44 age group who will get the COVID-19 vaccine shots free of cost. “We have placed orders with the two companies but not sure as to when will the vaccines arrive. We have already given Rs 700 crore to the State medical corporation for procurement of the vaccines,” Mohapatra added.
(Edited By Pradeep Singh)