Kerala does not have a situation of oxygen shortage at present, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
The State’s current daily requirement of medical oxygen is estimated at 74.25 metric tonnes, while the State’s daily oxygen production is 219.22 metric tonnes. This would be augmented as the requirement was rising, the Chief Minister said here on Wednesday.
As medical oxygen is one of the most critical elements of COVID-19 care, Kerala has also set up an expert committee to monitor the oxygen situation daily and to advise the government on how to manage the situation without falling into a crisis.
Kerala has also enhanced the health system's surge capacity by adding more ICU beds and doubling the number of ventilators it had during the first wave of COVID-19. Private hospitals have been asked to work with the government and to set apart 20% of their beds for COVID-19 care.
In both private and public sector, the State now has 9,735 ICU beds, of which 999 are occupied. The public sector ICU beds number 2,650, the current occupancy is 50% and this included both COVID-19 and other patients.
The number of ventilators in public and private sector together is 3,776, of which, 277 are occupied by COVID-19 patients. The number of ventilators in government hospitals alone comes to 2,253, of which the occupancy is 18.2%.
Apart from the 1,99,256 beds arranged in first and second line treatment centres, 136 private hospitals have made available 5,713 hospital beds for COVID-19 care.
The State has also drawn up a plan to augment this, if required, in the coming days.
