Keeping the oxygen flow going turns a challenge for Karnataka as Covid cases jump

Bengaluru: Requirement of medical oxygen in Karnataka has shot up five-fold in the last one month, coinciding with the surge in new cases of Covid-19.

“We have seen a substantial rise in oxygen consumption over the last few weeks. It has increased from 60 metric tonnes a day to 300 metric tonnes a day,” commerce and industries principal secretary Gaurav Gupta, who is monitoring the oxygen supply chain in the state, told ET.

Officials across districts, including Bengaluru, said the demand for oxygen-equipped beds has spiralled, necessitating a shift in focus of the state’s Covid-19 management strategy from transportation of patients and bed availability to ensuring seamless supply of oxygen to hospitals that treat people with coronavirus infection.

Some officials ET spoke with said ensuring steady supply of oxygen to hospitals is turning tough as many patients are reporting a reduction in oxygen level. They said there are no indications yet of Covid numbers subsiding in the state.

As of Tuesday evening, Karnataka had 96,918 active cases of Covid-19, of which 40,386 were in the state capital. Karnataka has 15,271 oxygen-equipped beds and 4,652 ICU beds, according to the health department data. Of these, 5,803 oxygen-equipped beds and 1,811 ICU beds are in Bengaluru city.

The increased requirement for oxygen is not limited to Bengaluru and tier-II cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Ballari and Belagavi, but is also being reported from smaller towns in districts such as Chitradurga and Haveri.

Gupta said the state has optimised the capacity of oxygen manufacturing units and has also capped the use of oxygen in industrial units. “We are carefully monitoring the production and supply of oxygen on a daily basis. The focus is on ensuring uninterrupted supply of oxygen so that no patient suffers because of lack of oxygen availability,” he said.

According to Gupta, Karnataka gets about 20 metric tonne of oxygen from neighbouring states Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana. “In turn, about 17 tonnes of oxygen is supplied from Karnataka to the border districts of neighbouring states,” he said.

Last month, 50 patients were shifted out of Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences in Bengaluru after the hospital reported shortage of oxygen supply.

Following the incident, health and family welfare department additional chief secretary Jawaid Akhtar issued guidelines to hospitals to make judicious use of oxygen. “There is an unprecedented surge in the demand for oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients and the expert committee has revealed that there is a non-judicious and excessive usage of oxygen therapy without proper monitoring,” he said.