As part of its initiatives to join hands with the government in the fight against COVID-19, Boeing India, a major aerospace giant, is going to establish a hospital with 250 oxygenated beds in Kalaburagi.
Addressing a media conference at Aiwan-e-Shahi guest house here on Saturday, Mines and Geology Minister and Kalaburagi in charge Murugesh Nirani said that the process of establishing the medical facility would shortly commence.
“Besides Kalaburagi, Boeing India would also establish another hospital with 200 oxygen beds at Yelahanka, Bengaluru,” Mr. Nirani said.
On the oxygen situation in the district, the Minister said that the real problem was not the production but the transportation.
“The district needs 30 kl liquid medical oxygen a day. The production of oxygen is not a big problem as there are many producing plants across the State. However, transportation is the problem as we don’t have enough cryogenic tankers. We have ordered new tankers and they have already reached Ballari where oxygen is produced in a large quantity. They are expected to carry liquid medical oxygen to Kalaburagi within a day or two,” Mr. Nirani said
When asked about the oxygen concentrators he had promised a few days ago, Mr. Nirani said that 100 oxygen concentrators were purchased as an emergency move and the same would reach Kalaburagi on Monday.
“Two patients could be provided oxygen from one concentrator. As many as 100 concentrators would reach Kalaburagi on Monday. The Union government will also provide 3,000 oxygen concentrators to the State. We too will purchase more concentrators in the days to come,” he said.
On the Remdesivir crunch, Mr. Nirani said that the Union government had given permission to 20 companies for manufacturing it and two of them were from Karnataka.
“There were only two companies that were manufacturing the injection thus far. However, the Union government had given permission to 20 more companies and two of them are from Karnataka – Mudhol and Belagavi. They would start the production by May 17. This would end the remdesivir problem in the State. As many as 200 vials of the injections had reached Kalaburagi on Saturday and the government would increase the supply as per the demand,” Mr. Nirani added.
