A German Oxygen General plant being readied at DRDO facility
New Delhi: In face of crumbling health care facility with 4,14,188 new COVID-19 cases and 3915 deaths officially registered in the last 24 hours, all eyes are on the armed forces, that have stepped up efforts to save lives. Today was the second day in succession that the number of new cases exceeded the four lakh figure. Experts warn of the figures crossing five lakh and many suspect the figures to be much higher.
While the Defence Research and Development Organisation has set up hospitals at New Delhi, Patna, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and more of these hospitals are scheduled to come at other such as that in Varanasi. They are all being manned by more than 500 armed forces doctors and nurses, ex-defence doctors have also now been pressed into service and they will provide online consultation on e-Sanjeevani OPD to all the people needing medical care. Another 150 Bed Covid Care Centre established by Indian Navy was inaugurated today at Khurda district in Odisha.
Indian Air Force and Navy too have stepped up efforts to to aid the civil administration in tackling the current COVID19 situation by ferrying oxygen containers and medical equipment. As on May 07, 2021, the C-17 aircraft of IAF have conducted 400 sorties from within the country, including 351 to airlift 252 oxygen tankers of total capacity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes (MT). The cities covered were Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijaywada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindon.
The IAF aircraft also conducted 59 international sorties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of 1,233 MT total capacity along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders.
According to the Ministry of Defence, a number of Army vehicles, Naval ships and Air Force aircrafts are shuttling every day to ferry oxygen generators, medical supplies, lab equipment and medical personnel to COVID hotspots from domestic sources and abroad. Apart from the domestic flights, scores of sorties have been undertaken by IAF to get medical supplies and oxygen generators from Germany, Singapore, UAE, Oman, UK, Australia, Israel, Belgium and Thailand. Indian Navy Ships are bringing in shipments of critical items including oxygen generators and cylinders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore. The Navy has also proved to be the lifeline for the country’s island territories. Heavy load carriers TATRA vehicles and military grade railway bogies of the Indian Army are moving heavy machineries, oxygen generators and cryogenic tankers to ensure their timely delivery. In these testing times, numerous in-house innovations have been made by the services to maximise on available resources. Additionally, procedures have been optimally modified to ensure better numbers for bed availability, and expansion of medical resources to unimaginable limits. Besides, naval personnel from Western Naval Command were today deployed for PM Care Covid Hospital (Dhanvantari), in Ahmedabad. This was in addition to a 57 member naval medical team already positioned at the hospital since April 29, 2021. The team is being deployed for a period of two months and will assist the hospital administration in handling covid patients.
International aid is pouring in and the government today listed international donations and aid of COVID-19 relief medical supplies and equipment since April 27, 2021 from different countries/organisations. It claimed that 2933 Oxygen Concentrators, 2429 Oxygen Cylinders, 13 Oxygen Generation Plants, 2951 ventilators/ Bi PAP/ C PAP, More than 3L Remdesivir vials were delivered so far.
Major items received on May 6, 2021 include:
New Zealand
- Oxygen Concentrators 6 pallets of 12 units each (72)
UK
- Cylinders packed in 20 pallets 46.6 liter(375)
Germany
- 1 Mobile Oxygen Plant- first trench
The Netherlands
- Ventilator : (450)
- Oxygen Concentrator : (100)
“All items received upto May 6, 2021 have been effectively allocated and promptly dispatched to the states/institutions. This is an ongoing exercise,” the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, claimed today.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation claimed that uninterrupted delivery of medical essentials continued from Goa Airport by seamless supply of medical essentials i.e., Covid vaccines, Fabiflu medicines, covid-19 testing kits and other essentials.
Meanwhile, considering the requirement of Remdesivir in every state and ensuring its adequate availability, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers D.V Sadananda Gowda today announced the allocation of Remdesivir made upto May 16, 2021. A letter written to all States by Department of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in this regard, mentioned that in continuation of the allocation plan of Remdesivir drug for the period April 21 to May 9, 2021, an updated allocation plan valid for period of April 21 to May 16, 2021 is prepared jointly by Department of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In the meantime, Department of Posts, in collaboration with Customs authorities, has been facilitating clearance, processing and delivery of Covid related emergency shipments received through post from abroad e. g. oxygen concentrators, equipment, medicines etc. A public notice in this regard has been issued by Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications.
The Railways has also made available a fleet of more than 4400 Isolation Coaches with around 70,000 beds to serve as Isolation Units. In the latest update, with demands from the State of Assam, the Railways has moved 21 isolation coaches to Guwahati and 20 Isolation Coaches to Badarpur near Silchar in Assam (N. F. Railway). Earlier in the week, Isolation Coaches were deployed at Sabarmati, Chandlodiya and Dimapur respectively. Accordingly, as per States’ demand, at present 298 coaches have been handed over to various states for Covid care with a bed-capacity of more than 4700 beds.
The latest demand, the Ministry of Railways said, came from the Gujarat government, wherein the Railways have deployed 10 coaches for Sabarmati and 6 coaches for Chandoliya. Alongside, in terms of the demand by Nagaland, Isolation Coaches, the Railway positioned 10 Isolation coaches at Dimapur. 5 Isolation Coaches having 70 bed capacity with one coach for medical personnel were deployed for Jabalpur and are now functional. 21 Coaches are now made functional for the medical exigencies at Palghar by the Railways in terms of Terms of Agreement with District Authorities. 2 sets of Oxygen Cylinders are also provided in these coaches to meet any exigency by the State Health Authorities in many places, the Ministry stated.
The updated position of the utility of these coaches positioned in the States of Delhi, UP Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were as follows:
At Nandurbar (Maharashtra), 10 new admissions were registered in last two days while 10 patients earlier admitted at this isolation facility discharged. 26 Covid patients are currently in isolation at this facility. Cumulatively upto now, 114 admissions were registered with 88 subsequent discharge of patients by State Health Authorities. The Railway has also positioned 11 covid care coaches (with one coach serving exclusively for medical personnel and supplies) at Ajni Inland Container Depot and handed over to Nagpur Municipal Corporation. 9 patients were admitted and 6 discharged here.
With regard to the demand by the State Govt of Madhya Pradesh for 2 coaches, the Ratlam Division of Western Railway has deployed 22 Coaches with a capacity of 320 beds at Tihi station near Indore. 19 patients are admitted here so far while 1 patient was discharged. At Bhopal, where 20 coaches are deployed. At this facility, there were 28 admissions with 10 patients discharged as per latest data. As on date 18 patients are utilising this facility. 302 beds are available at this facility.
In Delhi, the Railway has catered to the full demand of State Governments’ demand for 75 Covid Care Coaches with a capacity of 1200 beds. 50 coaches are positioned at Shakurbasti and 25 Coaches at Anand Vihar stations. 5 admissions were registered with all discharged. A total of 1200 beds are available here.
The utilisation of these facilities in the above-mentioned states, as per latest records, cumulatively registers 177 admissions with 117 subsequent discharges. Presently 60 Covid patients are utilising the isolation coaches. Around 4700 beds are still available at these facilities including the recent deployment at Guwahati and Badarpur near Silchar in Assam on North-Frontier Railway.
In Uttar Pradesh, though coaches have not yet been requisitioned by State Govt, 10 coaches each are placed at Faizabad, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Bareli and Nazibabad totalling to a capacity of 800 beds (50 coaches).
On vaccination drive front, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today stated that it had so far provided more than 17.35 crore vaccine doses to States/Union Territories, free of cost and that more than 90 lakh doses were still available with the States/UTs to be administered. It further informed that over 10 Lakh doses in addition will be received by the States/UTs in the next 3 days.
– global bihari bureau
