27 oxygen plants set up at Delhi Government hospitals

It is one of measures to equip the city to encounter the third wave of the pandemic

Photo used for representative purposes only.

A total of 27 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants with a capacity of 31 metric tonnes and two cryogenic oxygen refilling plants of 12 metric tonnes were inaugurated in Delhi government-run hospitals on Wednesday, authorities said.

During the second wave of COVID-19, Delhi faced an oxygen shortage and in one hospital 12 people died as the hospital ran out of oxygen and in another hospital death of 20 critically-ill patients were “linked” to an oxygen crisis by hospital authorities.

After this, the High Court had asked bigger hospitals to install oxygen plants. The Delhi government had accepted on multiple occasions that people have died in the city due to shortage of oxygen and blamed the Central government for the shortage.

“Twenty seven PSA oxygen plants and two cryogenic refilling plants have been established in Delhi.These plants have been made keeping in mind the third wave of COVID-19. With the help of these PSA plants, a large part of the oxygen production can be done in the Delhi government’s hospitals. Out of these 27 PSA plants, three were started in Lok Nayak Hospital and one at Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital,” Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the rate of COVID-19 infection has reduced, but the Delhi government is prepared to fight any such future crisis. “The government is setting up PSA oxygen plants in Delhi hospitals to reduce their oxygen dependence on external agencies and other hospitals can also refill cylinders from these oxygen plants during emergencies,” Mr. Sisodia said.

26 COVID cases

Meanwhile, the city reported no new COVID-19 death in 24 hours for the fourth consecutive day and the total number of deaths stood at 25,088, as per a bulletin released by the Delhi government on Wednesday. Twenty six new cases were reported, taking the total cases to 14,39,053.

A total of 66,682 tests were done in a day and the test positivity rate (TPR) was 0.04%. Of the total cases, 14,13,611 people have recovered and there are only 354 active cases.